WATERSIDE WORKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1924, Page 6

WATERSIDE WORKERS.

(To the Editor.) csir, —In a maintenance case ' nich frame before the Stipendiary Magistrate at New* Plymouth on Thursday, tn which a waterside worker was involved, I consider that every member of that organisation received a rude £ wakening when the professional gentleman Who appeared for the defendant in the ease mentioned openly told the Court that there were rightly seven fools on the water front. In evidence the secretary of the Waterside Workers' I nion told the Court that there are one Hundred and eighty-seven members of the local union. When further questioned he said he thought that one hundred men would be sufficient for local requirements, which brought forth the remark mentioned. Now, sir, 1 might state that neither eighty-seven nor on? hundred and eighty-seven of the men who at •present seek employment on the local waterfront would be there at all if any other employment offered. It is a Bcmmon fact that the most of the men who seek employment from the ships Which visit this port do not do so through their own choice but through over which they have no control, and as the old adage says a half a loaf is better than no bread. Trnsting that this matter will be more tbly taken up by some one more capable than the present writer, and thanking you in anticipation,—l am. Eft MARK LEVERICY. £ew Plymouth, Sept. 25.