The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1890.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5972, 27 October 1890, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1890.

Thk Employers' Associations throughout Australia uud New Zealand havo with one ncoord resolved to maintain tho principle of freedom of contract. A sovoro loseou has been taught employers which will nover bo forgotten. And this name lesaon has not been thrown awuy in England. This wo learn from Mr W. E. Maun, formerly of Napier, who has returned to tho colony on a visit. On his arrival tho other day at Auckland ho was interviewed by a roporto" from tho Now Zealand Herald on tho oubject of tho London dock strikes, and this is in effect what ho said :—ln his opinion tho dockers had littlo ground of complaint hs regards tho primary cause of tho strike. All tho mun of good ehiuaoter known to the stevedores and gangers for six months wore known us " tickot mou," and paid at a rato equivalent to Is uu hour in Auckland, and had tho preference when any work offered. In ordinary time* they were Miiiieient for tho requirements of the docks. But after harvest time, and h: times of depression, many thousands of unskilled laborers, nondescript*, ne'er-do-wells, ohuraoterless men, short sentence men, and ''short service " men (from the army) were clamorifig ut tho dock gates for work, and it was nmongst those classes that the Socialists begau to work, a)id that was how the trouble began. These men were not yet benefited by all tho labor battles and troubles and strikes. The regular doc.kmen had r-eiiped almost exclusively tho advantage, and formed a. labor ring, from which their less fortunate brethren were mercilessly excluded. The Btriko in London had virtually collapsed, when one Saturday afternoon the Lord Mayor received a cable of a heuvy remittance from Australia. This money whs handed at once to the Strikers' Committee, who dealt with it at their discretion, and the strike did not terminate till some weeks later. Tho distribution of the Australian fund was ft scandal, it being subscribed for tho wives and childrou of those in distress, whereas it was at once diverted to a fighting fund, to prolong tho iiidustrial war. The victory of tho dockers arose in this way :—The rival companies had ruined each other by overbuilding, and were in no condition w tight. A compromise had only junt been arranged under direction of the courts of law, ana the two companies for tho future agreed to work in harmony ou tho question of rates. The result of this was, that for tho first time for a number of years they were iv it position to pay 2 per cent, dividend ou their preference stocks, Another reason was, that the Government gave no effective protection to free labor, nqr would they furnish escort to bodies of free laborers desirous of getting iv to work vi the docks, but warned later on of tho danger of such abnegation of tho functions of :t government to citi/enH —<»i tho peril to tho whole community in allowing tho porsoim] liberty of men to be thus grossly viohilod— they gavo protection, _ both military and policy, to tho frr»» ja'oor entering tho S'>»t!: Metropolitan Gas Works, the result being" that the company won easily The gas works were now entirely with non-union labor, the men participating in the scheme of division of profits us propounded by tho m)iu»gi«o ""; < ",'' ir , , , ' Li vesey, which previous to the stri ke had been rejected by tho union. Tho dock companies woro defeated because froo labor was not protected ; the Gas Company won broaus->

protection was afforded. Both in England and Australia the solution of the whole difficulty pivotted on protection or nonprotection to free labor. Another element which entered into the struggle and helped

the dockers, was tho pressure brought to bear on the dock companies by the great Steam shipping companies, whoso steamers were lying idle, and fighting only for their own hand, they hud not y*>t learned the value of combination or foreseen thut their own turn was comirg to be crushed between the upper and nether millstoiim of old and new unionism. All these things combined caused the dock companies to throw up the sponge. Since Mr Mann left England our cablegrams have informed us that the Dock Companies Inivo recognised the importance of protecting the free laborers, and are now largely engaging permanent hands, irrespective of whether they belong to unions or not.