AUCKLAND STRIKERS OUTGENERALLED.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14811, 31 October 1913, Page 8

AUCKLAND STRIKERS OUTGENERALLED.

NAVAL MEN ON GUARD.

(PBES3 ASSOCIATION TELEGBAM.) AUCKLAND, October 30. The strike assumed a mors businesslike aspect to-day. Last night elaborate preparations were made to unload tho Tofua's fruit' cargo. A start was made at 8 o'clock this morning with the wharf and office staff of the Harbour Board, while the clerks and others from the wholesale firms interested handled tho fruit as it reached the sheds trom the slings. One of the truckers was Mr Donald, a wholesale merchant, fittingly attired for such work. The watersiders were apparently taken by surprise. When they arrived at tho Queen's wharf, where the Tofua was berthed, they found the quay barricaded for the full length with immense logs of timber used for piles, stacked on top of each other. H.M.S. Pyramus had moved right up to the shore and quay, but there waa nothing to indicate that this had any connexion with tho strike, any more than the fact that «.n imnnsing lot of bluejackets, carrying rifles and bayonets iiaraded the wharf, but nevertheless it iad its full impression on the strikers. Where the Pyramus's men stopped, fifty foot police and several mounted constables, under Supt. Mitchell, Inspector McGrath, and Sub-Inspector Johuson, were on guard. As the strikers realised the reality of the situation some expressed themselves angrily and loudly, and wore promptly grabbed by the police and hauled inside the barricade. They received good advice from the Superintendent and were allowed to depart, doing co quietly. Messrs Semple, Canham, and other leaders arrived later, looked over the preparations and went away without remark. The Tofua's fruit is the first shipped from Haapaii and Nukualofa since the hurricane which left the nativos of those islands almost starving. If the cargo wero permitted to rot in tho ship's hold theirs would be the loss, tho fruit being sent on consignment and produce sent them in exchange by the return steamer. At Onehunga this morning about a dozen watersiders were at work on the vessels in port. Mr Semple explained to a reporter that tho Strike Committee had realised that the cargo of fruit on the Tofua meant a very great deal to a few struggling planters. There was no desire on the part of tho Union to persecute, theso men, who wero the ones most nearly concerned. The fruit, he understood, was tho first shipment tho planters of Haapaii had been able to get away since tho last, devastating hurricane, and they were relying on it to help to set them on their feet again. It had, therefore, been decided to let it go through in the interests of those who had already suffered greatly. The matter was not one which vitally affected the issues the mon were fighting for, and no further objection would be offered to this particular cargo being handled. s