INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 29, 27 September 1912, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

TRADE union insurance

(By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (United Press Association.) London, September 2G. ■ Mr, Appleton, secretary of the Federation of Trade Unions, states that the unions are establishing a lilo insurance fund, owing to the activity of the insurance trust in connection with national insurance. Unless they did so it would be impossible for the unions to exist for a decade as approved societies.

STRIKE AT BARCELONA. Madrid, September 26. 1 Six thousand railway employees at Barcelona are striking. The Government is taking energetic measures to preserve order. THE J.W.W. Waihi, September 26. A deputation consisting of delegates of the new Union to be/ registered under the Arbitration Act waited upon representatives of the Waihi, Waihi Grand Junction, and Waihi Extended Gold Mining Companies, this afternoon, and received a definite assurance that the present rate of wages will not be altered pending the drawing up of a formal agreement, registered under the Arbitration Act. They received a courteous hearing, and .several matters were discussed, hearing upon the position of the new Union as the recognised voice of the manual workers in the industry. Members of the deputation keenly resented the assertion of the Federationists that the Union w r as a jCompany’s Union, asserting that the new Union was formed solely on their own initiative. The new Union is about one hundred strong, and it is understood'that the number will he largely augmented by the end of the month.

Mr Walsh, Secretary of the Auckland Council of United Labour, addressed the new Union at Waikino on Wednesday on the benefits of Arbitration methods of settling disputes. Mr Walsh, interviewed, said that the registration of this Union marked the turning point in the history of the labour movement in New Zealand, and indicated that the workers of New Zealand had found that the strike me-

thod was not a satisfactory way of bettering workers’ conditions. Strikes were only weapons of the I.W.W. and the action of the Waihi men in repudiating their tactics was the forerunner of the ultimate disappearance of the Independent Workers of the World as an active, factor in New Zealand industrial matters.

TROUBLE AT REEFTON. Reefton, September 26; j The Consolidated Goldfields Company applied to the Warden’s Court for further protection of four months. Warden Hewitt was disinclined to • grant protection, stating that the matter lay: in the hands of the Arbitration Court, who to-morrow, would appoint an arbitrator at Wellington. Mr La wry, solicitor to the Company, asked for protection, operative at once, as the Company, considering the Miners’ Union | had intimated that the men would not abide by any decision hostile to their j interests, consequently withdrew their j application to the Arbitration Court for the appointment of an arbitrator J The Warden refused to grant protection, until he knew the result of the Arbitration Court proceedings. Other applications were similarly dealt with. In the ease of P. Phelan, charged with abusing two free labourers in a livery stable, the solicitor for the accused raised the point that a livery stable was not a public place within the meaning of the Act. Magistrate Hewitt said it had been proved conclusively that accused had uttered strong, horrible, and filthy language. This was the first cane arising out of the labour dispute, and he warned anyone coming before brail on such a charge, that he intended j making the penalty heavy. The conduct of the Reefton men had been most ox-i emplary, and they would realise the damage done their cause by vile and filthy language. i 'Another case was adjourned for further evidence.