AT LYTTELTON

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8612, 24 December 1913, Page 6

AT LYTTELTON

OLD UNIONISTS STANDING OFF AVORK. Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, December 23. The watersiders, with one or two exceptions, persist in their attitude of refusing to return to their employment unless they are reinstated as a body. As there are now 153 arhitrationists engaged on tho waterfront, and as most of them are giving entire satisfaction, it cannot be expected that those men will bo put off to allow members of the old union to return to work. It seems certain that many of the men who took a prominent part in the industrial crisis will have to find employment elsewhere, and it is to prevent this happening that the men are reluctant to turn to. On being approached by a reporter to-day Mr J. B. Clough, president of the new union, stated that although a number of applications had been received from members of tho old union they had not been dealt with to date, and it was likely that a meeting of tie now union would shortly he held to consider them. Air J. AlcOombs, ALP;, was in Lyttelton this morning and had a conference with tho shipping employers, as a result of which the men were advised to forward their applications to union. Air AlcOombs subsequently handed over a batch of 300 applications from members of the old union, and they were forwarded to the secretary of the arbitration Union, At a meeting of tho Farmers’ Union held in Christchurch yesterday tho following resolution was passed, and a copy sent to Colonel Chaffey at the encampment of special police at Lyttelton:—“That the union keenly appreciates tho loyalty and self-sacrifice of the men who assisted to keep open the port of Lyttelton. Both workers and. special constables forsook their usual occupations in order to protect and carry on work necessary for the well-being of tho whole community; Tho union wishes to convey to them, tho thanks of the farmers, many of whom were greatly harassed by ho-.

ing unable to get the result of their year’s toil away to market.” The strength of the special police now numbers 130, of whom over forty arc mounted. It is unlikely that this number will ho reduced until after tho holidays. “A PRINCIPLE VIOLATED.” CHRISTCHURCH, December 23 Air McCombs, M.P., protests emphaticalh’, after a conference with employers, against tho method adopted in connection with the enrolment of tlio arbitration union. 'The principle is laid down in hundreds of awards that a union must bo open to any worker of good character and sober habits on payment of a small entrance foe. He says this principle is violated by tho new ’union, which professes to uphold the principles of the Arbitration Act. It was surely never the intention of the Legislature to confer upon a fraudulent and spurious organisation, the products of connivance between employers and meni outsido the industry in which the employees are engaged, tho power to exclude from means of livelihood the actual workers in the industry.