TROUBLE LOOMING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 34, 10 February 1914, Page 4

TROUBLE LOOMING.

Wellington's "Post," discussing the impending waterside trouble in AusI tralia, says if it comes, it will, of . course, be a vastly bigger thing than even our own recent waterfront dis- , turbance. Not merely lugger in scale; but bigger in 'principle. Wellington waterside workers brake their agree- ' ment because'.of a small question of travelling time concerning a small body of.-workers not under the agreement. Australian waterSiders are claiming higher wages and improved conditions, and, therefore, if they fight, they will fight for something tangible. Owing to the terms of the New Zealand agreement, the Wellington men, when they held a stop-work meeting, became strikers. In Austra-lia-fi'employers have been accustomed i to submit to these interruptions of work; therefore they do not, over] there, signify « definite gage of battle. ] But gradually the net of irritation I measures—stoppages of work and re-! fusal of overtime—is being drawn closer; and the employers, as in New Zealand, are taking their stand on the Arbitration Court and preparing for eventualites. If MV W. M. Hughes stll retains his power among the watersiders, it is to be doubted whether they will in the end ignore the Arbitration Court. But the waterfront in New South Wales, Victoria, and j Queensland is charged with electricity, j and a Commonwealth conflagration J may easilv follow.