COASTAL OFFICERS AND RUMOUR

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1259, 14 October 1911, Page 5

COASTAL OFFICERS AND RUMOUR

WHAT WILL TUESDAY SEEP The town was very busy circulating a rumour yesterday tbat all the officers on tho Union Company's ships wcro duo to striko on Tuesday next, but all tho people who should have known of tho truth or falsity of fho 6tory stated that it was untrue. Tuesday is tho day fixed for tho hearing of tho dispute between tho Union Conipun) and the officers in' their ships, and there is a possibility that tho guild, refusing to invoke the aid of tho Conciliation and Arbitration Act in any way, will not bo represented at the conference. This, if true, can mean only that they aro prepared (o use a certain other weapon. This is.the only semblance of confirmation that the rather startling rumour has. Ml this affects in ?omo measure the still unsettled dispute between tho officers of the "mosquito fkot" and their owners, for both eidea Are awaiting, with some anxiety, the decision of tho big company. For,, unless overtime, for which tho small .steamer officers aro holding out, is paid on the Red Funnel float they recognise that they need hold out no longer. Tho owners, too, recognise that theii' action must ultimately i>o governed by that of the Union Company. In tho meantime both sides aro doing nothing. Tho only news 'to record about the ships is that tho I'nliki and the Wairau should arrive in Wellington to-day, and that the Putiki will almost certainly be laid up. Tho Wairau will probably bo laid up also.