AT AUCKLAND.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14832, 25 November 1913, Page 8

AT AUCKLAND.

STRIKERS RETURNING TO WORK. FULL ACTIVITIES IN MANY TRADES. («r_CJA_ TO **T__ PS-*-") AUCKLAND, November 24. "Work is now proceeding at full swing," said the secretary of tho Master -uilders' Association (Mr George Baildon) this morning. The carpenters, plasterers, painters, and general labourers had returned en masse, while a number of bricklayers had also applied for work.

The decision arrived at by the timber workers to return to work was fully carried out this morning, when those who went back on Friday and Saturday were joined by the residue of the staffs. Enquiries made at the various mills elicited statements to the e_ect that all hands were back. "-The milling industry appears to have resumed its full activities.

The factories and workshops, in. the city report as a whole that their full staffs are back at work. This applies to furniture workers, joiners, shipwrights, coach workers, boilennakers, aerated water workers, etc. Full activities are being sustained at the Exhibition buildings. There was a remarkable _ spectacle on the waterfront this morning, when a lino of carts with cargo for -ie Union Company's steamer Wanaka was formed in Quay street. By twelve o'clock uiere wero over eighty vehicles of all descriptions, the queue extending from the shin's side at the Northern wharf to the Sailors' Home, and then up into Albert street. The Wana_a is taking a full miscellaneous cargo for East Coast and Southern ports, approximately 3000 tons.

Other work on the waterfront was in full swing. The berths for oversea vessels were fully occupied, and at the coastal jetties steamers were doublebanked.

Commenting unon the action of the Central Strike Committee in announcing that all unions now "out," except thc transport workers, are at liberty to return to work, the "Star" says:— "The announcement may be accepted as a proof ..that those chiefly responsible for the snread of this most unfortunate industrial struggle are beginning to take a moro rational view* of the situation. We are well aware that this action on the part of several of the Auckland unions has been largely influenced by extensive defections from the ranks of various unions which engaged in the svmoathetic strike. Nevertheless, we hail the action of the Strike Committee as a welcome sign that the belief even of tho syndicalist section of the workers in the efficacy of the general strike has already begun to waver."