SERIOUS SHORTAGE OF COAL

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 38, 14 August 1919, Page 4

SERIOUS SHORTAGE OF COAL

DESPERATE POSITION' BEACHED,

(BI TEtEGRAHJ.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

.WANGANUI,. 13th August. ■ Owing to the deadlock in connection with the unloading, of the coal cargo from, the steamer Inga, which has been lying at the wharf, for, the last .jionth, a desperate position has now 'been reached. The coal stocks at the municipal gasworks will ho exhausted on Friday, and _if the works close down the tram service and many local industries will be seriously affected in the course of the few following dlaye. To-day the Borough Council telegraphed urgently to the Minister for Munitions, and later received a reply stating that coal could not be "allocated to Wanganui while a vessel with 900' tons aboard .was lying idle at the port. At a meeting of the council to-night it was decided that the Mayor should .wait on the Waterstd'ers' Union in. the morning, and urge ttem to unload the vessel, otherwise the borough gasworks (manager be instructed to employ labour to discharge the w-ssel.' The motion wjvs keenly debated, and! several councillors • feared the action would "precirjitabo a general strike in the Dominioji, and contended; that the National Government should accept the responsibility, and not a local body. The Wangamii vateraidera. refused to unload, the inga, as the vessel has a nonunion, crew; -