DOMINION NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 19, 14 September 1912, Page 7

DOMINION NEWS.

For failing to attend military parados four youths were fined os each and costs 7s at the Wellington Magistrate's Court yesterday, and eight were ordered to pay 7s costs. The Southland County Council yesterday decided to increase the overdraft by £SOOO, and an increase of rates was foreshadowed. It was stated that country roads were in a bad condition, due to the fact that £1 did not do nearly as much work, as it id a few years ago. County Councillor Millar said that the rate should be increased in prosperous timesj- -so as to not leave a big overdraft to pay interest on during a period of depression. Complaints were made that much damage was done to the roads by motor cars, and a committee was appoined to consider what could be done to make owners contribute towards road maintenance.

Mr Semple, organiser for the New Zealand Federation of Labour, addressed about fifty men at the Addington Railway Workshops during the lunch hour yesterday. Inter alia, he said that at Waikino an attempt was being made to remove the term "scab" by the substitution of "arbitrationiss." Those men were scabs, and scabs of the worst type, since they were trying to smash the industrial democracy. The Federation was going on. with the contest. The coal miners who understood the position were supporting the Federation, and knew what it was to go before the Arbitration Court to be met with the sneers of a class-biassed judge. At Waikino the "seal)" were protected by the bludgeons of the police. No one who resorted to such tactics was a man. (Applause). Concluding, % 1 said that the Federation had surprised the country, and if the police are used too much it will surprise the dorkmen and the country as a whole still more. "We are," lie concluded, "not going down without a fight and if we do we shall leave a mark on the industrial history of the country." Masterton, September 13.

A jouth named Charles Jones was fined £ls at the Court for sly grog selling. The Arbitration Court at Wellington yesterday, heard an application for a new award by sawmillers and timber workers. The union's demands are a week of 45 hours in bush sawmills, wages ranging from Is 3d an boor to £3 10s a week, or a 45-hour week in the city mills, with wages ranging from Is 3d to Is Gd an hour and £3 10s a week; boys' wages to be adjusted by the secretary of the union and employers. An extended preference clause is asked for. After bearing Mr Lyons, for the union, and Mr Clenfell, for the employers, the Court reserved its decision.