Summary of Labour News March 30, 1895.

*THE WORKER*

BRISBANE, MARCH 30, 1895.

The World of Labour.

SHEARING will not commence at Charlotte Plains until the end of next month. Exact date not knows. - J. D.

SQUATTER Jimmy Tyson has sent a circular to all his stations notifying that the wages of constant hands must be reduced to 15s. per week.

THE Metropolitan Board of Works, Melbourne, have decided by 17 to 15, “That a minimum rate of wage be paid in connection with all contracts let by this board.”

A GREAT coal miners strike has taken place in Belgium. The police, as per usual, took sides with the colliery owners, and fired upon the miners, killing many of them.

THE Provincial Council at Liege, Belgium, insists in all public contracts on a maximum length of the working day being maintained and a minimum wage paid to workmen, who must also be insured against accidents at the employers' cost.

IN the Swiss canton of rural Bale domestic servants and workmen can sue for wages in a law court without any cost. In Queensland, on the contrary, in wage suits the law is so costly that workmen time after time prefer to suffer injustice in preference to being fleeced.

IN consequence of the broken promises and wholesale reduction in miners' wages by the colliery proprietors in the Newcastle district of N.S.W., non-unionists are being made unionists, ans there is every probability of a most bitter and desperate strike in the near future.

THERE complimentary tickets to the farewell banquet to Lord Hopetoun were sent to the Melbourne Trades Hall Council. The members of the Council thought that, whilst there were so many unemployed, the present was not a time for banqueting, and politely returned the tickets. Quite right!

THREE hundred workmen have gone on strike at Hudson Bros. works, Clyde, near Sydney. The firm kept reducing and reducing wages until the men could not stand it any longer. Nowadays cordial relations between the employer and the workmen means the peaceful acceptance by the latter of lower wages, never mind where it stops.

“Two of the most violently aggressive of the shearers' leaders have been elected to office this year. Mr. Arthur Rae has been elected president of the Australian Workers' Union, and Mr. Revolutionary Toomey is one of the vice-presidents.” - The Australian Pastoralists' Review. Good iron, Toomey. Go ahead, Rae. We want a few more of your sort.

JOHN Davis, homeless. destitute, and suffering from disease, asked a Brisbane policeman to find him lodgings or arrest him. The policeman refused, whereupon Davis deliberately broke a street lamp. For this he was run in and sentenced to fourteen days' hard labour.

Dimes and dollars, dollars and dimes,

An empty pocket's the worst of crimes.

THERE is a boot factory in Brisbane where the machinery that kicks up an awful row is nicely oiled and cleaned and well looked after. The men and boys employed in the same factory are paid wages that scarcely keep them in decency, and if any of them hums a tune or whistles the haughty boss comes along and shouts “out you go.” Machines are looked after better than men in this establishment.

LABOUR Member Browne, who has been suffering from an old wound in his leg, under went a successful operation on Tuesday last. He is now confined to his bed, where under doctor's orders he is expected to remain a month or six weeks. Mr. Browne is staying at Miss Patterson's, Inglewood House, Gray street, South Brisbane, where he will be glad to receive an occasional visit from friends during his retirement.

THE gripemen in the employ of the Melbourne Tramway Company are sufferers from locomoterataxia in consequence of the intense vibration of the cars on which they ride. After five or six years, at about 35s. per week, they have to face a lifetime of misery and inability to do hard work for a living. Is it unreasonable to expect that men thus incapacitated should be able to claim pensions from the company?

A MEETING of representatives of the master bakers and flour dealers was held at the Traders' Association, George-street, on Saturday last, to consider the grievance between D. Webster and Ainsworth and Son, bakers. A resolution was agreed to that the price of bread on the North side of Brisbane should be 21/2 per loaf, cash; South side to please themselves. Owing to certain master bakers being unable to agree, bread is now selling in South Brisbane at 2d. per loaf, and in one instance at 11/2d.

A short debate took place at the last Municipal Council meeting concerning the nucleus of the Art Gallery. The Government required that the council should find room, a caretaker, and insure the pictures while in their possession for a probable period of three months. This Alderman M'Master strongly opposed, and told the council that “if they placed reliance on the statements made by the Government they were depending on a broken reed.” M'Master is a supporter of the Government, and he ought to know.

IN reply to a question asked in the British House of Commons the president of the Board of Trade stated the Government were awaiting an invitation to intervene in the great boot trade strike now taking place in England, and would readily mediate between the masters and the workmen. The members of Australian governments, when a strike is on, bring out the gatlings and pass coercion laws in order to grind down the working classes to the will of the Fat Man they represent.

What a contrast!

A DEPUTATION of Sydney journeymen bakers recently waited on Premier Reid regarding sweating on some Government bread contracts. The N.S.W. Premier assured his interviewers of his sympathy. He was thoroughly in favour of Government work being done under standard conditions.

Sweating on Government contracts was an outrage. If the Government couldn't pay a fair and honest rate for its business, it had better shut up. He recognised that there were difficulties, but a stern effort must be made to carry the principle into effect. However, the next contracts wouldn't be let for 12 months yet. “And I rely on you to keep me up to the mark,” he said, “Be here two months ahead, so that I may be able to give effect to your wishes.”

ON the 12^th March a meeting of 500 unemployed took place at Carlton (Melb.) to consider their position. A deputation was appointed consisting of Messre. Hancock, Maloney, Prendergast, and Sangster, M.M.L.A., to urge the Government to start reproductive works in order to find employment for those willing to work. The Premier, Mr. Turner, in reply said, sympathising with the unemployed, that he would do all in his power to find employment, yet he could not go so far as to make the Government responsible for it. The question arises; Is it not the duty of the Government, the administrators of society, to look after the welfare of all, the more so when private enterprise is at a deadlock? When the latter fails surely it is the duty of any Government to step in and provide work for the workless. So long as this is not recognised how can a country prosper.?