A KENSINGTON CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 101, 30 April 1898, Page 4 (Supplement)

A KENSINGTON CRISIS.

That most' aristocratic of London's suburbs, Kensington, has: just passed through a crisis such as seldom falls to the ]ot of a.parish to encounter —a crisis that, will not be possible when motor cars rule the roast. The trouble was a strike, but it was happily a strike that failed. Some days ago the authorities at the Town HalT were astonished to see the boy-sweepers of the streets arrayed in their full w.ar panoply march up in a solid phalanx to the front door. They demanded to see the surveyor of the parish, and whtri that important functionary condescended to produce himself requested r.n interview. The surveyor invited the army of brush and shovel equipped urchins into the Council Chamber and requeKsted an explanation of their presence at the Town Hall and their absence from work. With one accord tliey gave answer: 'We're 'ere on strike; Guvnor, fer a tanner, a day hextry and we don't start till we gits it!'

Now, years ago the Surveyor had had ciruse to complain of the lads. They were unruly and worked unsatisfactorily, and he suggested that they might be dispensed with. But the connJitt.ee could not bring itself to part with the youths. Since then matters have been going from bad to Avorse, until finally, the strike. The brigade gave not<i moment's /warning, but left the streets and made their demand for sixpence a day advance. The Surveyor, however, Avas not dismayed. He had been plotting the downfall of the sweepers for many months and'"now they had delivered themselves into his hands. He had them in a convenient room and the youths were asked to file out of the door. As they passed through the ;wages due to each Avas handed to him with the information that his services Aveve no longer required. Every one of the youthful followers of Burns and that ilk was dismissed on the spot, and the Surveyor was able to report at the last meeting of the Wharves and Plant Committee that, by a new arrangement for sweeping: the streets, a saving of close upon £5 a Aveek had been made.

So Kensington still exists and her streets are if anything a trifle less odorcus than of old.