GASWORKS TROUBLE

Southland Times, Issue 17733, 10 August 1917, Page 5

GASWORKS TROUBLE

SEBIOUS DEVELOPMENTS POSSIBLE. WATERSIDE WORKERS CAUSING DIFFICULTY. (Special to the Tapes.) WELLINGTON, August 9. The Wellington gas strike, which has been reported as threatening serious developments, was mentioned in the House of Representatives to-day. The seventeen men who stopped work originally could be replaced, but the position has been complicated gravely by the refusal of the waterside workers to handle coal for the gasworks. The Government is the contractor for the supply from the State mines, and is therefore concerned as a party in the matter. Replying to a question on the subject, Mr Massey said that he had done everything possible to settle the dispute. Representatives of the Gas Company, the shipping interests, the waterside workers, and the men concerned had been in conference with him, and after prolonged discussion an agreement since published in the newspapers had been signed. Ten of the seventeen men who had stopped work had been present when the agreement was signed, but the agreement had been broken. He did not know why. He could only come to the conclusion that there was some influence at work which did not appear on the surface. “I think that at a time like this both employers and employees should do everything possible to avoid industrial disputes and difficulties, said Mr Massey, and if there was more give and take on the part of both classes there would be fewer of these industrial difficulties. I have written to the parties asking them to give effect to the agreement, but I have not received any reply. I do not know what the next phase of the difficulty will be.”

Mr Brown (Napier); “fake over the gas works.” Mr Massey: If we took over the works it would be a very awkward precedent. I do not know what the representatives of the industrial classes would say of us if we attempted anything of the sort. I do not want to fight in this case, and if a fight is forced upon us we will put up the best fight possible. The difficulty is not with the gas workers, but with the waterside workers. We understand what the development of this dispute into a great industrial upheaval might mean to the community. I will do everything possible to settle the trouble, but I think I have done that already.