LABOUR

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13270, 26 April 1907, Page 5

LABOUR

THE TROUBLE AT WOOLWICH. United Press Association —Per Electric Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, April 25. The authorities at Woolwich Arsenal are taking a ballot of all the workmen employed regarding a proposal to .close the shops on Saturdays. It is hoped that by working five days a week to the number of discharges by one half, .at an. average loss of -3s 6d per man. The majority of royal laboratory employees have approved the proposal. Ballots in the other workshops are proceeding. THE COAL-HEAVERS' STRIKE. SYDNEY, April 25. Strike matters are quiet.' The 'Strikers who gather round the employers' bureau and the ships coaling are much fewer in number and less demonstrative. , The free labourers "are allowed to pass almost unmolested. The Coal-lumpers' Union is making overtures to the Seamen's and Wharf-labourers' Unions to join issue in carrying on the struggle. A meeting of lumpers to-day, Mr Watson being present, discussed the situation'. It is reported that the meeting favoured a conference with the employers with a. view of arriving at a settlement. A meeting of shipowners and seamen is arranged for to-morrow, when affairs relating to the strike will be considered. - The French mail steamer Pacifique is coaling with her Arab crew, and the Peninsular Company's India with her own crew. Tho Niwaru, which should have sailed for New Zealand to-day. has bern decayed. It is stated that she is able to only" obtain 1000 instead of 2000 tons of ■ coal required. Numbers of vessels are obtaining coal at Brisbane. The action of the Newcastle trimmers in deciding not to work ships which usually coal in Sydney, has given rise to an interesting point. Several of the shipping companies, including Huddart-Parker, have been in the habit of sending some of their steamers to Newcastle icr bunkering the others a t Sydney, but as the majority coaled at Newcastle one time or the other, it remains to be &een how the" Newcastle trimmers will apply these cases. The steamer Banffshire, en route from Brisbane to Sydney, intended to call at Newcastle for "coal", but the enquiries of the agent of the vessel. disclosed that the Banffshire would be placed under the coaltrimmers, and sho therefore comes t on to Svdnev to coal.

ALIEN LABOUR, 2.IELBOURNE, April 25. Sir John Forrest, acting-Premier of Australia, after a Cabinet meeting stated that the correspondence in reference to the employment of alien labour in coaling ships at" Sydney had been considered. Amongst the other complaints received, Mr Watson had wired that coloured labourers were working on the colliers in coaling ships in contravention of the Immigration Restriction Act, adding that no objection could be taken to -the coloured men working on their own ships, but he must emphatically protest against them working on lolliers- the biUer being in

Commonwealth' territory. If this/ v/ere permitted aliens may engage in any work ashore during tha stay of their vessel at any port. Mr Deakin, after informing Mr Watson that it had be.sn decided in previous cases that crews working on 'their own ships were exempt from the Act, referred the matter to the Attorney-General, who gave an opinion that the present case could not ba distinguished from the previous cases, and that crews acting under the orders of captains in loading ships in port are not immigrants within the meaning of the Act.