MEAT FOR THE ISLANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 282, 27 November 1919, Page 6

MEAT FOR THE ISLANDS.

At this stage of the butchers' strike the less said about the strike itself the better may lie the prospect of a settlement, but the action of the watersiders ' in refusing to load meat for the Islands' should not be allowed to pass without a( protest. Its only connection with the! -strike is in the minds of the men who. refused to handle the meat. In the name! of common-sense, why should people in 1 the Islands have to go without meatj that is all ready to be shipped, merely I because in Auckland master butchers and their employees cannot agree over wages? For cuntomers in the Islands will suffer far more than the exporting firms at which the action of the watersiders is aimed. The goods are non-perishabie, and if they are not. consumed to-day j they will be a month hence. It is the un- j fortunate consumer in the Islands, de-, pendent upon New Zealand for bis meat, and particularly the New Zealand soldier at .Samoa, who is going to feel the weight of this silly action. We hope that on reflection the watersiders wiil see that, even assuming the butchers j have an unanswerable case, the with- | holding of supplies from the Islands j does nobody any good, and puts a' number of people to serious inconveni- [ enee. The union disclaims responsibility for the refusal to handle the meat, which | is due, it is said, to the "individual de-j cision of the men." A similar announce-1 ment was made in Wellington when men, recently refused to handle a cargo of; coal from Australia, but it impressed j nobody. If the union wishes to convince' the public of its sincerity, let the executive condemn this action of individual members, or call a meeting to regularise the situation.