THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8249, 2 October 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1906.

Somo interesting comparisons of wages in different countries are to bo found in a Blue Book reoently issued by the Board of Trade, under the rather unpromising title of "Abstract of Foieign Labour Statistics." America appears to pay muoh tho highest wageß. Brieklayers, for instance, in London get £2 3s 9d (or rather they did when these statistics were compiled) for a week of 50 hours, and in New York £5 19s 2d for a week of 44 hours. In Berlin they get £1 17s Id for 53 hours, in Paris £1 Ha 7d for 54 hours, income 16s 4d for 60 hours, in Amsterdam; £1 8s for 58>i» hours. In London carpenters receive £2 3a

9d, and painters &\ 17s 6d, while the wages in New York if or these workers are £4 17b, and £4 6a 7d. Bub to realise what really loV % wages are ono has to look at the figures for th« agricultural labourer and the Japanese operative. The figures for agricultural labour in Russia do not come beyond 1898, in whioh'year per day was paid in spring, and la 4%d during the cereal harvest. In 1904 in Sweden the agricultural labourer was paid 23 5%d per day in summer and Is B%d in winter. In Hungary the summer wage was Is 7^ 2 'd, and in winter 10d. Ihe general average 'for the same class of work in the United States was, in 1902, £i 12s 3d per moiath, and for what is called "transient service in harvest, with board," the average daily rate in the United States in that year was 5s 7d, and without board 6s The highest wage paid per day in Japan in 1904 in ordinary trades was the Is 4d of the Htone-worker, and the loweaS that of the female weaver, BJ4d a day. The compositor, well paid in other countries, received lOd a day, and the day labourer 9%d. It must be remembered that tbese wages do not inolude allowances of food and clothing, Interesting evidence is also presented of the growth of the trade union movement. The following figures show that, except in the case of Great Britain, there have D36D large increases in tbe total membership of trade unions:1900. 1304. Great Britain ... 1,928,894 1,866,755 United States ... 793,702 1,876,501 Germany ... 995,435 1,466,625 France.'.. ... 491,647 715,576 Austria 119,344 189,121 In nearly every country ptovisioo has been made for tbe establishment of arbitration machinery for settling trade disputes, but Germany is the only great country where the ose of this machinery is compulsory.. In Germany the law provides for the establishment of an industrial court in every town of over 20,000 inhabitants, ana in 1905 there were ,'4ll of these courts in existence.

M panoer Hughes, continuing his delightful reminiscences of Parliamentary life in "M.A.P.," points out that the popular belief that the great dividing line in politics is that which separates the Liberals from tne Tories is a pure fallacy. I'he real gulf is that ffhioh separates the old member from the new one, the front-benob man from the man who is not in the front row. There is a well-known tale about Maule, the distinguished counsel, being treated with soma disdain by n young barrister whom he had trained, and to whom he was opposed in some case. At Inst Maule made his protest to the judges in this way: "My lords, we are mammalia, wo aro vortebrates; but my learned friend's manner would be offensive in the Almighty addressing a black beetle." Mr Hughes applies this anecdote to the noviue in polltias, who, ho says, "is recognised in a general way as a mammal and a vertebrate, but is made to foei his position acutely." The old member, it soems, is not wilfully brutal or even unkind, but his affable airs are often even worse than open brutality. During the first few days of a now Parliament the new member is subjected to humiliations far koener than those implied in references on the Jloor of the llous'3 to big inexperience. He is t«kon rotund and shown the place and the old member always assumes that the new one is a feeble-minded imbeoile who knows absolutly nothing, who ia in need of the most elementary information, and who must, in fact, bo told things which ought to be evident to the average man. At flrsfc the novice feeling his way ia apt to display almost a painful self-abasement, but this soon wears off, and within a few weeks, the mnn who was tiptoeing stealthily about the/plaoo at* he nervously curried bio hat will be seen hands in nookat, his hat on the" back o! hi? head, stradiliug about the lxby, chatting easily about standing orders and trying to appear as if hs knew the difference between "ways unci means" and "supply." The fooling of inferiority on the part; of tho back-bencher is a more lasting and permanent feeling, because the front-bencher almost invariably oatohea the Speaker's eye in a contest of a dozen memburs for tho privilege of speaking.