NEGOTIATIONS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1901, 8 November 1913, Page 6

NEGOTIATIONS.

OONCILIATION^OOMMISSIONER' . NOTHING DEFINITE. The negotiations conducted yestordav nf +i, a V to Promoting a settlement ot. the strike wero somewhat mixed. Ihero were at least two distinct lines ti 11 °/o m -. . s direction. Mr. P. ilally (Conciliation Commissioner) was at work, and met with somo partial success in his official efforts to restore industrial peace. Tho members of tho Watersido Workers' Union, on their own account, held a mass meeting in the afternoon at which proposals were considered which had been tentatively formulated at a meeting of fanners' representatives and representatives of the union on the provious evening. ,4 s the activities of the Conciliation Commissioner, ho was approached yesterday by tho.executive of the Fedoration of Labour and subsequently had a conference with the members of that ooay. The upshot'was that three meini rS iu executive, Messrs. ft. Semple, W. P. Young, and J. Dowgray, accompanied by Mr. Hilly, interviewed the I rime Minister at Parliament Buildings. It is understood that they laid berore him a proposal that an agreement Bhould bo made botweoa tho ia-

tersiders and their employers which should bo enforceable by some legal enactment other than the Arbitration Act. The end sought might bo'granted, it was suggested, by means of an amendment of tho Trades Union Act. The proposal ,of tho Federation representatives was in fact to establish Arbitration machinery, and to enact that breaches of agreement should bo punisliablo by the infliction of a monetary penalty. Tho Prirao Minister, it is stated, ■undertook to do what he could to promote a conference with the employers to consider the settlement of tho strike on the basis above outlined.

Mr. P. Hally (Conciliation Commissioner), when ho was interviewed. last evening, said that ho had some hopes of another conferenco between the parties to "the watersiders' dispute being convened to-day. From his recent communications with Federation officials, Mr. Hally is of opinion that they are anxious to promote a settlement likely to maintain any agreement - that may bo arrived at. Tho Federationists, Mr. Hally went on to remark, were not prepared to accept tho Arbitration Act, but they were prepared to accept an agreement backed up by a special legal enactment calculated to ensure the full discussion of questions in dispute, prior to any extreme stop being taken and providing that any broach of agreement should be visited 'with substantial penalties; This was, at any rate, a big departure from the doctrines ,of syndicalism. It remained to bo seen, Mr. Hally added, whether the employers would concede something. In his opinion some compromise was possible. Tho' ordinary arbitration machinery had worked well ih the case of most trades, but in the case of casual and intermittent ; occupations liko thoso followed by seamen and. wharf labourers good results might follow if the arbitration machinery wero simplified and modified to somo extent.