THE MARITIME DISPUTE IN SYDNEY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 290, 15 December 1902, Page 2

THE MARITIME DISPUTE IN SYDNEY.

It will be a most grievous matter should a strike occur in New South Wales as a result of the present dispute between the seamen and the shipowners. For as surely as night follows day a strike of seamen in Sydney would be followed up by strikes at all the chief Australian ports, and a most serious and costly disturbance of trade and commerce. Both sides appear, however, determined not to give way, and the outlook at present is certainly most threatening. Upon such evidence as has been published in the New Zealand press it is diflOSouU to say whjoh. side fa

right. The shipowners contend that maritime oommerce is at present so languid and depressed that the bad times justify a reduction of £1 a month in the men's wages, whilst, on the other hand, the men declare that, while they were willing to accept a reduction of half that amount, there has been no such falling off in the demand for tonnage as to warrant tha larger reduction. How the dispute, if it comes to the serious stage of a strike, will be affected by the Arbitration Act passed a few months ago in New South Wales, we cannot say; but to us in New Zealand at least it would seem that the dispute should be brought before the Arbitration Court, and an amicable settlement arrived at by this means. In New Zealand shipping circles there mii3t necessarily be no small anxiety as to the turn the dispnt*} i may take.. It is an open question how , far our New Zealand seamen, even did they so desire, could go in the direction of assisting their fellow-workers in Australia. Opinions differ as to how our men are affected by certain decisions of the New Zealand Arbitration Court. We do not consider that the New Zealand seamen will be overanxious to meddle in the dispute, for ' they must have lively and none too agreeable memories of the terrible , effects of the last maritime strike into which they were t>o foolish as to be i dragged. For the sake of all concerned —shipowners, seamen, and the general public—it is most sincerely to be hoped that the threatened strike may be averted, for should it eventuate it must infallibly bring misery in its train.