"ABSOLUTELY OUT OF HAND."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17456, 28 April 1920, Page 7

"ABSOLUTELY OUT OF HAND."

SECRETARY REVIEWS POSITION

[by telegraph.—own correspondent.] WELLINGTON. Tuesday. The executive of the Locomotive Association met in Wellington to-night and communicated with the Prime Minister by telegram. Late in the evening the position was stated to be unchanged. •' We think that we can hold the South Island, but the North Island is absolutely out of hand," said the secretary of the association, Mr. McArley. "We had to Jet them go. The men" would wait no longer, and their resolutions passed at very large meetings were absolutely definite.

' Some people seem to think that the North Island men are out because the j Prince of Wales is here. That is not so fat aIL«-If. we had been able- to hold -the North we would have done so. We have had numerous telegrams from the branches in the South Island, asking to be allowed to join their comrades in the North, but we have instructed all the Southern men to stay at work." . The locomotive men in Wellington are not stopping abruptly at midnight. They are finishing their jobs, and some of them will be at work well into to morrow morning. They have been instructed to complete whatever duty has been assigned to them. When they knock off thev will not resume until directed by their executive.