THE MATES' STRIKE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12824, 16 October 1911, Page 5

THE MATES' STRIKE.

WHAT TUESDAY WILL SEE

The /Dominion" states that Wellington was very busy circulating a rumour on Friday that all the officers on the Union Company's ships were due to strike on Tuesday next. l)iit all of the people who should have known of the truth or falsity of the story stated that it was untrue.

Tuesday is the day fixed for the hearing of the dispute between the Union Company and the officers in their ships, and there is a possibility that the guild, refusing to invoke the aid of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act in any way, will not be represented at the conference.

This, if true, can mean only that they ares prepared v tovuse a certain other weapon. ' This is' the 'only semblance of confirmation that the rather startling rumour has.

All this affects in some measure the still .unsettled dispute between the officers of o the "mosquito fleet" and their owners, for both sides are awaiting with some anxiety, the, decision of the big company. For, unless overtime, for which ths small steamer, officers are holding out, is paid oil the Red Funnel fleet they recognise that they need hold out no longer.

The owners, too, recognise that their action must ultimately be governed by that of the Union Company. In the meantime both sides are doing nothing. ;

Th c only news to record about the ships is that the Putiki and the Wairau should arrive in Wellington today, and that the Putiki will almost certainly be laid up. The Wairau will probably be laid up also.