AUSTRALIAN MARITIME CRISIS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12999, 15 December 1902, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN MARITIME CRISIS.

[From Our Correspondent.]

■WELLINGTON, Dec. 15. Private advices to hand this morning intimate that there is a slight prospect of the threatened maritime strike iii Australia being averted. The seamen’s representatives are inclined to modify their demands on one particular point only.

Mr A. J. Millar, M.H.R., speaking to a reporter on the Christchurch. Railway Station on Saturday, just before the express left for the south, said ho could not see tile slightest possibility of New Zealand ' being dragged into the strike. The only connection between this colony and Australia so far as the dispute was concerned was the fact that the seamen here might contribute funds to assist those of the Commonwealth ; but, he added, that was a private matter between the Unions, and could have no significance from the colonial point of view. He expressed a sincere hope that matters would be amicably adjusted, saying that an organised strike would be a far-reaching disaster to Australia-, as about 25,000 men would be involved. POSITION OF THE .UNION COMPANY. VIEWS OF THE GENERAL MANAGER. On Saturday a reporter had a short interview with Mr 6. Holdsworth, general manager of the Union Steamship Company, who arrived from Wellington and went south by the express. He said that should a general strike occur in the Australian and Tasmanian trade, ten of the company’s steamers would be affected. They arc nearly all well known to New Zealanders, being the Wakatipu, Oonah, Pateena, Flora, Kawatiri, Orowaiti, Wareatea, Kamona, Kittawa and Koonya. Mr Holdsworth also said that conferences in Australia between representatives of the Seamen’s Union and the shipowners were no new thing. Several conferences had taken place during the past four years, and, though the latest had proved abortive, the other conferences had resulted in agreements being mutually arranged for the trade. Those agreements had been honourably observed by both sides. The shipowners acted unitedly through their Federation, of which practically every shipowner in the colonies was a member. The Seamen's Union was represented by some able men, and these delegates at previous conferences had been moderate and reasonable in their attitude on behalf of the men.

Judging by the success of past conferences, Mr Holdsworth says that he still hopes some arrangement will be arrived at which will prevent a strike. Outside the question of wages, the Arbitration Court’s award under which the seafaring trade in New Zealand was worked, made the conditions of our trade more favourable than they were under the articles signed by the men engaged in the Australian trade.