WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13903, 3 November 1919, Page 1

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

BIG STRIKE AVERTED

• A DISQUIETING EPISODE. "(Special to the Oamaru Mail.) WELLINGTON, October 31. On Wednesday the outlook on the waterfront here was extremely disquieting. The waterside workers had refused to unload the cargoes of Newcastle coal, some 6000 tons, which had arrived by the Kaiapoi and the'Kaitaugata. the sorely needed fuel being ••black" in the trade union sense as well as in the mineralogical fact, and ,for twenty-four hours it -appeared as if the Dominion were about to be plunged mto a bigger industrial struggle than any that had afflicted it during the pre;vious thirty years. Business men saw little chance of eseape.from this catastrophe and" many of -the' workers regarded it as inevitable.' Supplies of [ coal in private hands were extremely ; short, probably shorter than they were during the "railway cut." and in many homes the bins were absolutely empty. THE CRISIS PASSED. Yesterday morning, however, the whole position changed as if by magic. Men began to turn up on the wharves' shortly after six o'clock and by the time the call was made by the shipping companies' 'foremen two hours later an' unusually large number of willing bauds were offering. The men required tor the Kaiapoi and the Kaitangata. were obtained at once and the needs of ail the other vessels in port were readily satisfied. What had happened, in the meantime neither the representative of the shipping companies nor of the waterside "workers would disclose, even' if they knew, and to-day the curious public continues to speculate and be.thankful. The fact that the men are working is a great relief to 1 the city, as a whole.

THE SANER ATTITUDE. From what can be gathered from the men on the wharves it seems there may be some ground for the suggestion made-Jjy the Dominion this morning to. the effect that the eve of a- general election _did not strike the leaders of the official. Labor, Party as an opportune time for a trial of strength with the rest of the community. Try as they might have done Mr H. E. Holland and his colleagues could not' have persuaded the long-suffering householders that responsibility for the- empty oins rested with the maladministration of the Government and not with t lie refusal of the workers to unloau the supplies lying at the wharves. There is little doubt, indeed, that it is jmblic opinion, expressed in and out of Parliament, and the good sense, of a large majority of their followers, that Have brought the Labor leaders to reason. LIGHT AHEAD. ■ If this really is the case the episode, alarming as it was at the time, has served a very excellent purpose. The Employers' Federation, whose representatives were meeting hero in conference at the time, passed resolutions affirming that "a new order of relationship between particular employers and their workers must be established" and urging that employers of waterside labor should adopt "a system of permanent employment on the wharves of .the Dominion. These resolutions indicate the direction in which the minds of thoughtful business men are moving j and ought to receive the very serious attention not only of employers and workers; but also of the Government.