THE DOCK STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1531, 29 August 1912, Page 4

THE DOCK STRIKE.

GOSSIP ON THE TURAKINA. The great transport workeTs' strike at the London docks had just begun when the Turakina steamed up tho Thames on her last voyngo Home, aud although it was a week day, the docks bare an ns-ped of Sabbatical calm. Tho vcswl returned to Wellington on Tuesday, and among the ship's company strike gossip was nlon"The root of the wlrolo trouble is not simply tho vindication of this principle or that, 'but the sheer excess of supply over demand," said one man. "Those who get work enn earn good money. It is those who can't who are making the trouble. They loaf about, listening to tho uuion agitators, and brooding over their own grievances. The big majority of them couldn't tell you what they were striking for—didn't know. All they knew was that they had to do it, or suffer, with their families, tho consequences which were visited upon the 'scab' labourer." According to another man, tho policemen detailed for patrol duty in and about tho wharves had "n pleasant seaside holiday, and got quite sunburnt." They were in"touts, most of them, in fact, and tho shipping companies had an arraugement whereby their meals wre supplied on the spot. * When off duty they played cricket. Talking of the free labourers, one of tho speakers remarked ,thot one. glance at the bulk of them was sufficient to convince the experienced eyo that these men had simply torn un their union ticket to escape starvation for their families. Tho unions got outside the law by demanding the men's continuous discharge, books when paying over tho strike pay. This was simply a ruso to block the men from getting back to employment. Captain White-Parsons, of the Turakina, is of opinion that the dock trouble is onded for an indefinite period as tho result of the determined action on tho part of those interested, in the docks. Tho strike in reality became a lock-out, and finally the men wero only taken back in competition with the army of free labour which had.como to London from all parts of England and even Scotland. Thoso men were not likely to givo ground, as thby were those who in the past had only besn earning four or five shillings a doy. and to receive eight shillings was something in tho nature of a windfall. Half tho men did not; know what they hml struck for—they blindly obeyed tho delegate of ,tho union. "Wo had an experience of how littlo they could bo depended en in thr< unloading of the Turajiina. We had started discharging, and had the assurance of the men that there would be no trouble, but two days later along camo a delegate on a bicycle and told them to stop working. They all immediately obeyed, leaving the hatches open and all the gear just as it was. They graciously left us our firemen to keep th« freezing machinery goin<r, but afterwords repented, and wanted thorn to go out. but we had them «afo on board, and kept them there. Some of Hip clerks, and oven the gentlemen inleroslrd iu the company financiilly, with I ho aid of some free labour, helped to discharge the dairy nrodiicc. The ship was loaded by 11m officers with a few free, labourers. They worked hard from fi a.m. until 7 p.m.. with an hour for dinner' and time off for tea, and received Us. 2d. per day, in addition to (heir ordinary salaries. The ladies of Wellington have to thiinl; the officer-; for the arrival here of Iho now season's millinery'"