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Hokitika Guardian, 18 July 1918, Page 2

I.x the course of nil in fur view last week Mr A. W. Bennett, general manager ol the New Zealand Shipping Company, reviewed the present position of the overseas shipping trade. Jn the matter of the shipping on the coast at present there was practically no change in report, hut. there was a prospect, of shout three or four insulated steamers loading in the not distant, future, which was ralhormore than was expected some time ago. We have also fixed a sail-

in ship from Canada to one port, in New Zealand. This vessel will bring out a full earo of Canadian goods, and may load hack to Canada or the United States. We have also iixed two sailing ships from Canada for Australian ports. On the wliolo, the immediate outlook is hotter than was expected a week or two ago. Of course, the. exports arc accumulating all the time, hut at this time of file year they do accumulate in any great quantity.” Speaking with reference to the dominions’s chief exportable products, Mr Bennett remarked that everything pointed to a congestion in regard to wool by midsummer. But in the North Island especially,” ho went on to i?ay, “tho wool brokers are increasing their storage accommodation, which I regret, to say is not being done- in the South Island to any extent. There are 370,000 bales of wool still in store in the dominion. When it is considered that the total clip of New Zealand is a little over 000,000 bales, and that, by tho end oi August, that is generally all cleared off, it looks as if wo will got into the new season with half of last season’s clip on hand, ns shearing begins on the east coast of the North Island in October. With respect to frozen meat, at the end of June there, were in the freezing works of the dominion about; n,200,000 freight carcases, and the storage capacity is about six millions and a half of freightcarcases. The now killings come in in November. “Of course." said Air Bennett. “ there is a little killing going on all the time, Imt that; Is more than balanced by the tonnage we get between now and October. Anybody can see what the position is, and it all depends on the supply of tonnage between now and the end of the year.”

A bombshell was dropped among the Sydney wharf workers by Mr'Justice Higgins when tie refused to return to the Waterside Workers' Federation the privilege of preference, which it lost last year as a result of its participation in (he strike. His Honor was somewhat outspoken on the matter, and the wharf workers have probably learned a lesson that, will bo of value to the whole of the labour unions in this country. When the strike commenced the wharf workers, ignoring a score of agreements and undertakings, refused to go to work. They even refused to work transports and hospital ships, in spite of a most solemn undertaking to Hie contrary. Tn return for their promise that they would lake no part in strikes and observe the principle of arbitration, they had been given a complete preference clause:, which conferred upon the federation a virtual monopoly of wharf work. No non-un-ionist had a chance of securing waterside employment. As soon ns the waterside men in Sydney, Melbourne, and Freeman tie refused to work—the men in other ports carried on as usual—jtho Industrial Court cancelled that far-reaching clause. Then the shipping firms issued a general invitation to free labour, offering good wages and preference in employment after the strike, and sufficient men came forward to allow the work to he carried on. When the strike was broken, the shipowners continued to give preference, as promised. to the loyalists, and tho powerful federation has been furiously trying to Break down that arrangement. Tt foucht the case strenuously before Mr Justice ITiirgins, who is not regarded as a “class-biassed’’ judge, aliil had high hopes; but his Honour took what is generally regarded as tho right view of the ca c e, and insisted that the loyalists must still continue to have preference. The federation, by deliberately and dishonourably ignoring, its agreements, had to be punished, and the fitting way to punish it was by taking away the valuable privilege it gained by making those His Honour acknowledged that lo follow this course, created injustices in one or two directions—notably among the unions in the parts where the men worked os usual during the strike such as Hobart and Brisbane—hut no other way seemed open, and tho innocent must suffer with 'the guilty. An unusual feature of this ease, was that a secret list of the loyalist workers, which had been prepared for his Honor was 'taken .from an office which was broken into one night. On a. number of occasions, immediately following this incident various men of tho loyalist organisation were savagely assaulted by members of the old federation. This caused much comment and, ns an indication of the class of men in the federation, and tho ideas of lawlessness animating them, possibly weighed with his Honor in making his award.