A SINGULAR STRIKE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6289, 21 September 1898, Page 4

A SINGULAR STRIKE.

Mr Andrew Collins, who leaves London shortly to attend the Trades Union Council at Bristol;' as representative of the New Zealand Trades Councils, was subjected to an interview by the "Daily Mail"' the other day in regard to the working of the com--sory Arbitration Act of the colony. Mr Collins is evidently a thorough admirer of Mr Reeves'-s Act, which, he says, "has made strikes a thing of the past," and has already benefited the workers of your small community to the extent of £18,000. Mr Collins is at present staying with relatives at the pretty little Surrey village of Egham. Before going to back to New Zealand, I hope the ex-president of the .Wellington Trades Council will find time to pay a visit to Russian Poland, and instruct the good people of Sieradz in the principles of compulsory arbitration. They have just had there a strange and successful strike. It seems that the professional beggars of the town have been in the habit of calling at every door oh Fridays and receiving the customary aims of a Polish groschen, worth about a farthing. On a recent Friday they omitted their visit, and later sent around a delegate with the notice that, unless they received two groschen from each house they would emigrate in a body to Czenstochau, where a miraculous image of the Virgin attracts pilgrims, and where beggars reap a rich harvest. As in return for the alms the beggars pray for the souls of the givers at morning Mass, the good people of Sieradz yielded at once to the demand and kept their beggars.