AT AUCKLAND.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14841, 5 December 1913, Page 8

AT AUCKLAND.

STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN OF STRIKE COMMITTEE. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TEL-GRAM.*) AUCKLAND, December i. Th© last of the mounted "specials" wer© withdrawn from the waterfront this morning, but returned later in the day. Work proceeded as usual without disturbance during their' absence. The Maheno sailed to-night for Sydney with about 150 passengers. A "scratch" crew was secured. Work is proceeding satisfactorily amongst the shipping. There seems to be ample labour available, and cargo is being loaded, and discharged expeditiously. The chairman of the Auckland Strike Committee said this morning that the local committee had agreed to the reference of the whole dispute to Sir Joshua Williams. The point at issue seemed to be that the employers were determined to have no form of labour organisation outside the Arbitration Act. A casual observer, he said, assumed that the strike was broken because Auckland had got busy all at once, but there was only one small coal nijme working in New Zealand, and it was beyond the possibilities of an ordinary business transaction that the industries in New Zealand and the shipping could be maintained on coal supplies obtainable from Japan or Africa. The Strike Committee realised, he said,

that the conditions were far from being back to normal. There was also good authority for stating that there would bo trouble at the London docks when ships loaded in New Zealand during the strike reached London. The city magistrates to-day decided that all restrictions placed on hotels m connexion with the recent strike trouble be now removed.