STILL UNSETTLED.

King Country Chronicle, 8 November 1913, Page 5

STILL UNSETTLED.

I I PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. I The cosition in regard to the strike at both Auckland and Wellington becomes mora serious daily. At Auck- ' land strong efforts are being made by I the citizens to adjust matters satisI factorily. On Thursday a representa I tive deputation waited on the Employ- ! era' Association with ;i view to urging fiu'tber negotiations in the none or bringing about a sei.tleiT.ent. The efforts of ths deputation were directed towards inducing the Employers' Association to depart from the stand taken up that the workers should consent to register under the Arbitration Act. Mr Nicholson, in introducing ths deputation, pointed out that the existing law in New Zeasnd made it optional i'or unions to either register under the Arbitration Act or under the Trades Union Act. Many unions were registered outside the Arbitration Act, and yet at the same time were not in any way connected with the Federation of Labour. It seemed to him inexpedient and unwise to attempt to make registration tinder the Arbitration Act compulsory when the law of the. land left such action to the discretion of the unions. In his opinion such a course would be liable to involve in the present conflict unions that were not in any way affiliated with the Federation of Labour. He thought that this condition, which it had been proposed to make the basis of settlement, wa9 really the only bar to a satisfactory ending of the dispute. The differences otherwise appeared to him to be very small. He was confident that with this barrier out of the way a method could speedily be arranged by which this difficulty could be overcome. Other members, including Mr Paul Hansen, a director of the Trawmay Company, spoke in a similar vein. Mr David Goldie, president of the Employers' Association, was in the chair, and explained that the meeting had been hastily convened to receive the deputation. The attendance of members of the association was not so strong as he could have desired, and it would be necessary, therefore, to call a fuller meeting at a little longer notice. He would, with this purpose in view, call a meeting for 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when the representations of the deputation would be carefully considered. FARMERS' UNION ATTITUDE. The conduct of the strikers in Auckland has been of a peaceful nature with the exception of one or two instances when mounted sDecials from the country were stoned, but it is recognised that the introduction of free labour may lead to conflict. On Wednesday evening a deputation from the Farmers' Union waited upon the Mayor, and explained the attitude their organisation was adopting to" wards the preent Btrike. Major Lusk headed the deputation, and said he wished to remind the Mayor that they were as much concerned as the citizens of Auckland in ensuring an effective settlement. They were prepared to make a settlement, but not a bargain, with the Federation. In a day or two they would have 2000 farmers within a mile of the waterfront. The farmers were! not putting themselves to so much inconvenience for nothing. Any agreement should bs on a basis making for stability, and they insisted upon being consulted in regard to any agreement made with the water side workers. "We are not going to all this trouble and loss and inconvenience for nothing," said another speaker. "We want some sort of guarantee that ail this industrial trouble held on the wharves is going to cease as far as handling our produce is concerned. To see the result of our labour rotting on the wharves because of an outside row in which we are in no wise concerned, is too serious a proposition, and if other people are not prepared to handle our produce, we 9re forced to do it ourselves, and we intend to do so. No settlement will be acceptable to the farmers which does not insure us against a recurrence of these wharf troubles. We have left our homes at considerable loss to ourselves, indeed, our womenfolk in many cases are buckling to and having to du farm work. The citizens will see that this is a very serious thing for us, therefore we ought to be consulted about any settlement. The Mayor replied that he agreed that the farmers had the right to be consulted concerning any agreement arrived at.