THE CALL FOR FREE LABOUR.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1896, 3 November 1913, Page 9

THE CALL FOR FREE LABOUR.

IN CHRISTCHURCH. WILL THEY CONCENTRATE HERE? (By Telosraph.—Prosa Association.) Christchurch, November 2. The Canterbury Employers' Federation has decided that it will make an effort to work the wharves, and, in pursuance of that plan, has called for free labour. The, central employment bureau is tho rooms of the Employers' Association, in Cashel Street, and the strikers decided to picket it. . Tho, enrolment wa3- not fast, but the employers claimed that they had oyer thirtyseven applicants in tho morning, in addition to others who were being enrolled at places not spocified, or were being got casually. A Federation official stated that 200 inon were required to work the wharves at Lyttelton, .and 300 to. protect them, and, if this number.rwas I :.forthcoming, a start might 110 doubt be made on tho wharves on Thursday. A further idea is that the employers may concentrate all the free ■ labour on "Wellington, where the 'strike is the seat of tho trouble. Once broken in Wellington, it is thought that the_ strike will cease in other parts. This proposal is regarded as most feasible from the employers' point of view, as the police-are now concentrated in. "Wellington, and the shipping there is the heaviest, but the employers do not disclose whether they are going to follow it out'at present/ . They stato that they intend to start at Lyttelton on Tuesday, but some reports say Monday next.