GENIUS FOR SQUABBLES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1970, 29 January 1914, Page 6

GENIUS FOR SQUABBLES.

EX-STRIKERS & A ROOM. (By Teloeraph.—Brecial Ooires-nondenU Auckland, January 28.

Since ihe' recent strike the watcrsiders' waiting-room on Queen's Wharf lias been used by members of the now Waterside Workers' Union, who carried on the activities of the port at the time of the strike. Yesterday afternoon the Harbour Board considered in committee an application from the re-cently-formed Auckland Coal and Cargo Workers' Union (formed by men excluded, from the other union) for permission to enter and use tho waitingroom. The board resolved that, for the time being, temporary accommodation for members of the Coal and Cargo Workers' Union be provided at tho King's Wharf, and, further, that when the Arbitration Court sits the board oppose the waiting-room being made the place where labour is to be engaged in connection with either union. The usefulness of the waiting-room as a place for the engagement of hands was questioned by a stevedore who was giving evidence in tho Magistrate's Court this morning. It was a nuisance, he said, to go all tho way from the Railway Wharf to the waiting-room to fi'l unexpected vacancies in a gang, and it was more Usual to engago men on tho spot. "There is an agreement with tho employers providing for the engagement of men in that room only I believe," said Mr. Kettle, S.M. "There was," said the witness, "but it has been moro honoured . in the breach than in the observance. Some of the men wouldn't shift out of that room for a week unless tho caretaker turned them out."

"It's tlio old story," said Mr. Kettle. "Most people will break the law when it suits them to do so."

This remark caused a 'general laugh among tho watcrsiders in court._ . "It's no laughing matter," said Mr. Kettle, without a smile. "No, F>'r," replied the witness goodhumouredly, "but it's the way you put it."