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Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 53, 26 November 1920, Page 6

"Pilfering on the wharves" is an ex pression that covers a multitude 8 of sins (says the Melbourne "Argus") It is not confined to Hie waterside worker who smuggles a pair of silk stockings into his trousers pocket, or the stevedored labouror who taps a barrel of beer in the hold. 1 here is another sort of pilfering that tho public scarcely realises. U is Ihe pilfering of the time and money of shipowners, merchants, and the genrral public caused by the iniquitous habit of holding "stop-work" meetings. Tieccntly Ihe members of the Federated Seamen's Union wished to discuss certain recommendations of their Federal executive. The matters involved' were in no sense matters of dispute with cxployers. They were matters of purely domestic interest, affecting tho internal working of the union. There seemed no reason why they should not be discussed in the men's spare time. The seamen brazenly walked down the gangways of the shins, and for three hours argued the question among themselves. Pilfering such as thin is not punishable in the police courts: it is apparently ueyond the ken of the Arbitration Court. But it is pilfering none the less, and deserving of the etrongast condefoliation.