MEAT-WORKS' STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1364, 15 February 1912, Page 5

MEAT-WORKS' STRIKE.

POSITION UNCHANGED,

'A visitor to Polono yesterday would scarcely have realised that there wcro ia the town several hundred men on strike, The town is quiet, and tho strike is not any longer the burning question discussed by ovcryliody. Some of the men thrown out of work by (ho strike have mado shift (o get other employment, and a. fvw of them have been successful, but otherwise the position of affairs between the companies oml tho men is unchanged. Apparently the men are waitiiij,' for something to torn up, and (lie companies are likewise satislied for the prmont to play a wniling game. Jn tho meantime the fat slock in the country are not lx>ii!g slaughtered for export. Tho utmost capacity of (he two works is 12,500 sheep and lambs per day, and just now they ought Ig bo handling wry nearly the maximum. Tho five days' stoppage has therefore already held back prolxibly r>5.000 or more sheep, which means, roughly speaking, that »!>,OOO carcasses winch should have been exported, will not be exported (his year. If the strike continue.', as it almost certainly will, this numbjr will be increased enormously. A delay such as this does not simply mean tlmt the season will extend a few days longer. The grass that is now being consumed by shoep which ought to be through tho works will not ba available lo fatten other sheep, and the output will be reduced in , con.sefpicnco.

It is understood (hat Mr. P. Hally, Conciliation Commissioner, who returned from Napier lust, night, may ofi'er his assistance as mediator between tho parties to-day.