STEVEDORES AT PORT.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2032, 28 August 1880, Page 3

STEVEDORES AT PORT.

The experiment of discharging coal with the orew of the Camperdown hag, it is said, proved quite satisfactory, as much as ninety tons being landed at one hatch in a day. It appears that the lumpers who struck when Is 3d per hour was offered them instead of Is 6d, have generally continued to resist the reduction by refusing to work at the lesser rate, and that the stevedores, Messrs Talbot and McClatchie, who are determined that Is 3d is the limit, have found it a useful expedient to arrange with the crews of the vessels as above stated. It is alleged that many of tho men in port now unemployed would gladly accept the reduced rate of pay were certain pressure not brought to bear upon them, but in the existing state of the labor markot such a condition of affairs would almost seem impossible. Yesterday, astiDg under instructions from the Harbor Board, the Harbor-master put on a number of men to scrape down the wharves and clean them. The rate of wages, 7s per day, was eagerly accepted. The work comes in most opportunely, as at the present time the relieving authorities in Lyttelton, as well aa the local Benevolent Society, have more demands for assistance from laboring men (many with largo families) than they can meet, and have been reporting for some time past a steady increase, or as the phrase goes " still they oome." At Buoh a time those who can afford to refuse fifteen pence an hour should feel thankful.