AT WANCANUI

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14829, 21 November 1913, Page 11

AT WANCANUI

THE "TIED FEDS." AXD THE WATEBSIDERS. (SrECJAr. TO " THB PBESS.") WAXGANITI, Xovomber 20. A quartet of "Red Fed" emissaries

who hare been conducting a "mission" in Napier arrivedin Wanganui by Tuesday night's train. Their purpose-was to convert the local -waterside workers, and to that end they wont on to the wharf yesterday morning with a view to getting in some effective oratory. They expressed a wish to address the men, but they were doomed to ment, for the- men, with the exception of two or three*, who are not just now working on the wharf, . hud started work, &Dd were not disposed to give up profitable employment in order to listen to unprofitable talk by an organisation which has liitherto ignored and flouted the local union.

Checkmated in move- number one, the Federationibts endeavoured to reach tho same end by a different, route. They managed to signature of ten financial members of the union to a requisition calling a special meeting for the evening. . According to tho rules governing special meetings, it was necessary that tliie requisition should be handed io the secretary of the union, but that officer was missing, and consequently the obligators' formality could not bo complied vrith.

The perplexed delegates next tried their persuasive eloquence on the.president of tho Union, and declared that he should take the law into his own hands and convene a meeting. Ihe president, however, wac not to be bluffed, and politely but firmly refused to do anything of the kind.

After this rebuff there remained but ono alternative—to call a meeting themselves, and tbie they did by inserting an unsigned advertisement in the evening paper calling a meeting of tho Union to be held at 8 p.m., but how they spent tho day is not recorded. At -the appointed time they turned up at the hall, but once more disappointment dogged their steps, for instead of an array of waterside workr ers anxious. to listen to. people of "direct action"-and "class war" they found but-a sparse gathering comprised of about a dozen membert of tho Watersdo Workers' Union, two or three general labourers, and one or two unclassified spectators. For a timo they seemed to be uncertain as to xvhether it was worth while to waste their eloquence on the desert air, so to speak, but tho burning desire to let oft steam conquered their wounded and Mr Black having been voted to the chair, the orators got to work. The first speaker had a good deal to say about the Huntly strike, but his colleagues for tho most part contented themselves with hurling- uncomplimentary epithets of a familiar kind at the watersiders of Wanganui in general, and the president and executive of tho union in particular. What resolutions, if any, were carried when the flow of eloquence had run out is a matter of no consequence, as an unofficial meeting, representative of nothing in particular, could not officially arrive at any decision. ; It is interesting to know that while the poorly-attended farce'was proceeding, forty odd members of the union were still, as they had been in the morning, more profitably .employed about their regular business on the wharf. It may be added that the indifference shown towards the visitors by tho bail waterside workers was perfectly consistent with the attitude always maintained by their union and by the New Zealand Federation of Waterside Workers generally towards the Federation of Labour.