Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/550

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL Dr. Ruhland's account of the labour movement and the eight hours lay in Australia, though full of interesting facts, is not so good as his account of the labour laws. He has not such reliable authorities to build on, and he occasionally misinterprets those he has. He has had before him the Reports of the Australian Trades Unions for a number ?f years past, but expresses a very justifiable surprise that neither from them nor from the annual intercolonial trades union congresses can any trustworthy figures be got either as to the number of trades unions that exist in the colonies or as to the number of unionist labourere as compared with non-unionist. The trades unions of Victoria originated in the brief a?tation for the eight hours system in March and April 1856. The masons had a union before that, founded in 1847, but it died in 1851, because the members flew to the gold-fields, and when the eight hours agitation commenced in 1856 there was no trade union in the colony. Each of the building trades formed organisations then to fight this battle, and the exigencies of the battle welded them insensibly into the larger federation which became presently united under the Trades' Hall Council. Dr. Ruhland says the trade unions fell off in numbers in the years 1861-64, and that they recovered their ground after the colony became protectionist in 1866, but he founds his statement merely on the reported numbers in the eight-hour pro- cession on the 21st of April, which were stated to be 5,000 in 1859 and 3,000 in 1863; but if he had carried his researches further he would have found the number was only 2,500 in 1871, protectionism and all. The number in the procession is no index to the membership of the unions: 8,000 walked in the Melbourne procession of 1890, but only ?5,000 in that of 1891 because the weather was bad. The Trades' Hall is a meeting-house for the trades unions. It stands ?n two acres of ground presented to the trades by Government in 1857, and on which, in 1859, they erected a wooden structure, which contented them till 1874, when 3,500 was spent in a new stone building, which has been since much enlarged, first in 1881 by an addition costing 3,400, and again in 1888 by an addition costing 5,000. The cost of these undertakings is generally met out of the profits of the annual .demonstration, which came to 1,200 in 1888. The Trades' Hall Council consisted in 1889 of 130 members, representing 61 different trade unions. T]ae representation of the unions on the Council follows this principle: a society with from 20 to 100 members has one representative; a society with 100 to 200 has two; a society with ?00 to 400 has three, and a society with more than 400 has four. Unions that have their seat in the Trades' Hall buildings pay a contribution of .6d. a member when their membership is between 20 and 200, of 4d. a member when their membership is between 200 and 400, and of 2d. a member when their membership exceeds 400. The payment of these fees e?titles a society to the use of meeting rooms one night in the week. All these trades are eight hours trades. The masons and ,carpenters indeed work only 45 hours a week, enjoying the Saturday