STRIKES IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume L, Issue 14970, 18 May 1914, Page 5

STRIKES IN AUSTRALIA

A WELLINGTON MAN'S IMPRESSIONS.

(srEciAr, to "the ritEss.")

"WELLINGTON, May 17

A well-known ex-Wellington employer, now resident in Sydney, in a letter to a friend in this city, has somo interesting remarks to make concerning the Labour Government and the strikes in New South Wales. "I thought when I was coining to a place where a Labour Government was in power that I would hear nothing of strikes,'' he writes. He found, on the contrary, that they wero exceedingly numerous. He adds:—"The Opposition Party in our Dominion are going round complaining of the strikes we hare had since Massey and Co. came into power. Wait until we havo a Labour Government, then look out for strikes. The settlement of our strike in New Zealand has done a lot to harden up tho Employers' Association here, and also to give the farmers an idea of tho power they have. The quiet way in which tho farmers and employers wero working in connexion with the chaff strike and the power behind it all is commencing to make itself felt. When telegrams arrive from various places stating that 500, 1000, and 2000 men wero coming to Sydney to unload the chaff, someone is sure to strike trouble. Tho cost of living here is going up out of alb reason, and when a halt is called by tho Labour Courts (it cannot go on for ever), then the trouble will begin."