EXTRA EDITION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1912, Page 8

EXTRA EDITION.

STRIFE DEFERRED? ■♦ Peace — at least for a time — has been established between the City Council find the tramway men, or is it between the council and the " Strike Committee"? An end for the conflict has been found on the well-trodden ground of compromise. The council has neither won nor lost, and tho " Strike Committee " is in Bimilar plight. The basis of the agreement is that Inspector Fuller is to bs transferred at the request of both himself and the tramway men. The union has secured the result; which ifc strove to get by striking, but iho "Strike Committee" has not the satisfaction of saying that the council has been "brought to its knees" by such lurid nonsense as " Revolutionary Socialists " and other members of the " Strike Committee " uttered at the Basin Reserve yesterday. The public may be pleased with the outcome of to-day's negotiations, in which the Prime Minister took a part, bat any comfort which the public may get from a. resumption of tho tramway service must be discounted by misgivings about the future. The outstanding memorable feature of this dispute has been the appearance of '"syndicalism" — the doctrine of "one strike, all strike" — as preached by such " syndicalists " as Messrs. Semple and Hickey, of the "Revolutionary Socialist" Federation of Labour. Members of the Trades Council organisation, alleged to be "evolutionary," have tended to dance to the piping of their "revolutionary" colleagues of the Strike Committee. At first there was talk of a general strike if the council dared to t employ- non-unionists — contemptuously described as " scabs " by the "Strike Committee" — and later this threat was used regardless of the council's intentions to try or not to try to run the cars. Certain Trades Councillors have been just as. prompt as Federationista to ignore the Conciliation and Arbitration Act. It was plainly to be a policy of force, at any cost to the community — government from the cart-tail instead of any properly-constituted tribunal. We believe that the City Council made a mistake in recognising the "Strike Committee/ of which several members have palpably proved unable to govern themselves. The signs are that the industrial peace patched up to-day may be shortlived. The tramway men have finished striking to-day, but what union may strike to-morrow, next week, next month? If a "Strike Committee" is formed for tramway men, the inference is that a similar group of ambitious dictators will be set up to attempt to organise a general strike to help any union to win in a dispute with any employer. If such deplorable action is contemplated, and if the "Strike Committee" is similar to" tho onn which Wellington has just witnessed, New Zealand will see a period of industrial upheaval and i turmoil, disastrous to the workers misled by such a "Strike Committee." We shall have more to say coon about the lessons of the strike.

.Mr. G. G. Farland has in hand the matter of the requests of tho hulkkeepers employed in the harbour, who are seeking a conference with, employ- ! ers, with a view to an increase of wages and improvement in working conditions. Counteas Wiser, a German lady of mature years, has mapped out for herself a fairly rough itinerary in the South Island, considering her age. She has jusfc arrived in Wellington after thoroughly visiting the thermal district o'i Auckland province. Now she . intends "doing" Mount Cook, the glaciers, the Cold Lakes, and is going through the bush to the West Coast Sounds. Afc the Lower Hutfc Tennis Club's annual tournament, wliich was continued on Saturday, a surprise was brought about in the ladies' championship biugles. Mrs. Wagg, who had held the championship for a number of years, and who&e chances, therefore, were considered to be very good, met her Waterloo in Miss C. Stevens, who carried off tho honour with the score 9-0. The champion has played very consistently throughout. In the final of the men's handicap doubles Power and Allen (15) beat Gardner and Poananga (20), 70-54, while in the championship doubles Allen and Power suffered defeat at the hands of Hursthouse and P. Brown, 6-4, 6-2. In the men's handicap singles further results were as follow : — Second round : P. Brown beat J. M. Dawson, 70-65. Third round : P. Brown beat Poananga, 70-64. A remarkable case in which an undesirable immigrant } has been debarred from landing in Perfcn, and subsequently in Dunedin, has jusfc come to light, states the Otago Daily Times. It appears that a young Irish immigrant passed the .two medical tests imposed by the immigration agents in London, and took passage to Perth in the Kaipara. During the voyage, however, the man became insane, and on the steamer's arrival afc Perth, was not allowed to land, and co was , brought on to' Dunedin. As the Kaipara will be some time on the New Zealand coast, and the facilities for looking after a man suffering from insanity are rather primitive, when the steamer reached here the owners — who fully recognised their responsibility — decided to try to get, the sufferer committed to a mental hospital till such time as the boat was ready to leave for Home again, being prepared to enter into a bond that he would theu be taken away. The un- j fortunate young Irishman was, therefore, brought before Mr. Widdowson, S.M., so that he could be committed to Seacliff, but as the law exists the magistrate had no option but to declare him a prohibited immigrant, and order his removal back to the Kaipara. Other means failing to gfit him to Beaclift, there was no alternative but to take, him abouid the steamer again. It was then found that the Tongariro would take her departure from New Zealand before the Kaipara, and so the young man was transferred to this steamer, which left for the Bluff on Friday, and finally leaves Wellington on 10th February. A passenger who travelled by the Tongariro to the Bluff says that pomething should be done for the young immigrant in the cause oi humanity. He says he becomgs veiy violent at times, and seeing that no adequate provision 6xists on shipboard for the treatment of such cases the captain has no alternative but to order hie crew to overpower him and put him under restraint. Our informant also says that the sailors, with their inherent kindness, endeavour to do the best for the sufferer, but that, naturally, the treatment^ is s>omewhafc severe, and he gives it as his opinion that the man will die before the shores of the O_ld Country, again lognj in ffigjitj,