POLICE SHOOT.

Auckland Star, Issue 38, 14 February 1929, Page 7

POLICE SHOOT.

MELBOURNE FRACAS. Volunteer Workers Stoned On Wharves. LABOUR UNREST. (Australian and N.Z. Tress Association.) (Received 11.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. A message from Melbourne says there were exciting scenes on one of the wharves there yesterday in connection with the timber workers' strike. Some volunteer drivers were stoned by strikers from the timber yards until the police intervened and discharged revolvers over the heads of the demonstrators. A policeman chased one of the assailants half a mile. He caught him in a waterside office and dragged him out. Officials at the Trades Hall say they are not perturbed by the merchants' threat to engage volunteer workers. They are of the opinion that they will not secure much of a response to their advertisements. Union officials say they have been advised that in the majority of the yards at Newcastle the 44-hour week has been reverted to, and that all the men have been re-engaged. A telegram from Canberra states that Mr. W. M. Hughes commented upon the attitude of the trades unions in desiring to withdraw from the Arbitration Court. He said this amounted to a frontal attack on the arbitration system. The men had everything to gain by arbitration, which afforded a relatively economical means of redressing grievances. Their attitude was most illconsidered. Incendiarism is feared as the cause of a lire which destroyed 2000 feet of timber stacked on the wharf. The carters and drivers refused to handle it. At one time adjacent stacks, containing 1,000,000 feet were threatened.

FREE LABOUR.

Ten Mills Work On 48-Hour

Week Basis.

UNION SURPRISED. (Received 11.HO a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. Employers of the timber trade report, that at least ten Sydney iirnis are working full time on the 48-hour week as the result of a call issued yesterday for free labour. Many applications were received from men seeking employment. Tho move took union officials by surprise. Mr. Corke, secretary of the Timber Merchants' Association, denies tho statement that many firms are working staffs on the 44-hour week. THE COAL CRISIS. BAVIN AGAIN TO INTERVENE. SYDNEY, February 13. Tho New South Wales Cabinet to-day considered the crisis in the coal industry. Subsequently the Premier, Mr. T. B. Bavin, said the Government had decided to take steps to see whether anything further could be done to save tho position. At least 2f>oo men would never be employed in the industry again, said Mr. Bavin, and the Government was anxious to know whether employment could be found for them. He would probabiv visit the coalfields later. The Premier indicated that the Government would take certain steps to restore peace in the industry. He said he was hopeful a crisis' would be averted.