LATEST CABLEGRAMS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XX, Issue 6160, 31 July 1888, Page 3

LATEST CABLEGRAMS.

i ft -— [PRESS ASSOCI^^ 0^,— COPYIiIGIiT.J (Received July fOth, 11 p.m.) . BIG SEAMEFS STRIKE threatmed--1 [PRESS ASSOCIAT IoN *J Sydney, July 30. Should the threatened strike o£ seamen • take place it will be the largest known, in the southern hemisphere. It is „im- ; cult to ascertain the' exact facts m conse- ; qu'ence of the reticence of the Seamen s Union and Shipowner's Association. The principal cause of the difficulty is • the Northern Steamship Co., Auckland, the seamen' having discovered that the , Shipowners' Association had subsidised, ; . and assisted the jNorthern Company, ■' '■ called a conference of delegates to consider the. difficulty. They were determiued to bring affairs to a crisis, ana invited the owners to confer for the purpose of settling the dispute, hut the latter declined, but at the same time expressed readiness to refer to arbitiation certain matters which had been at issue for seme time past. Subsequently ' : it appears the owners agreed to the con- ' ference. The Northern Co. dispute two ; questions of overtime and over-manning and make the. proposal that time for time should be allowed eight-hours work ■ only in twenty-four for ordinary rate of : pay. The latter proposal led the seamen to suspect any attack on the eight hours system and the prevailing : rate of wages, and they intend to decline : arbitration including these points, holding the owners responsible for, the continuance of the strike against- the Northern Co. The owners denied having any 'designs either upon hours or Wages,.but the seamen persisted in their Suspicion, and gave notice to all Unionists to withdraw from their vessels on a date hereafter to be fixed.