ROAD WORKERS’ STRIKE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10632, 3 July 1920, Page 6

ROAD WORKERS’ STRIKE

PROTEST AGAINST FOREIGN LABOUR. About twenty-five men, working on the Lyttelteu-Sumnor road, downed tools yesterday as a protest against the Public Works Department employing foreign labour (says a Press Association telegram). The imported men number live, and are Indians, alleged to have been sent by the department from Auckland. 1 EXPLANATION AND SETTLEMENT. A subsequent message stated: —The trouble on the Lyttelton-Sumncr road has been settled. It appears that tho Hindus, who last- .week completed a contract on tho railway construction works in the North Island, arranged with the Public Works Department to take up a separate contract on the Evans Pass road between ' Lyttelton and Sumner. They reached Christchurch on Tuesday, and instead or calling at the local office of the department, went straight out to the Job, and the ganger placed them at work' as labourers. The departmental officers were not aware of the Hindus being on the scene till it was reported that tho white workers had ceased "work. A delegation from tho men waited on the district engineer this afternoon and had the facts placed before them. The engineer said it was intended that the Hindus should undertake a small contact on the road by themselves, and they would not come into contact with tho .whites. Subsequently it was decided, on account of tho feeling existing, that the Hindus should not be engaged on tho Evans Pass works under any agreement. ' >