WORK AND WAGES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIX, Issue 9969, 23 February 1893, Page 6

WORK AND WAGES.

A meeting of wharf labourers afcTimsru was held on Tuesday evening, at which a Committee waa appointed to draft a petition, to be signed by all tho wharf hands, asking the stevedores to accept, aa a “ rule of the port,”- tho principle that wharf labourers will not work in tho same gang with seamen on articles on foreign-going ships. A good deal of interest has been manifested ia the retiring speech of Mr Josiah Thomas, who, as President of the Australian Miners’ Association, is giving place to Mr George Hum, recently acquitted of conspiracy in connection with the late strike. Mr Thomas said—“ Never can I believe that tha repulsa we have received, heavy, terrible and tremendous aa it has been, is to prove final. I cannot but believe that the men of Australia will never rest until the maritime, the shearers, and and the Broken Hill defeats have been converted into triumphs. That the men of Broken Hill will ever attempt to assist themselves or to regain their lost position through strikes I do not for a moment believe. If tho Broken Hill strike has taught us anything, it baa taught us this : The

uselessness and futility of strikes, though we can claim, and not without reason, that we had the power of stoppage of a vast dividend as a help to compel the shareholders to listen to reason. Splendid and magnificent support was accorded to us by all the Unions of Australasia. The support was unique as far as Australia waa concerned, and the chances of winning were i-ucb ns rarely, if ever, have occurred before. You wo were unable to win. Mere justice pitted against vested interest and

wealth is of no avail. I cannot but express my deep sorrow that, through that travesty of justice, the Deniliquin farce, Ferguson, Sleath, Hewitt, Heberle and Polkinghorno, instead of being with ua, are in prison; bnt we rejoice that their imprisonment ia no disgrace to them or to the cause they represent; but rather it ia a lasting disgrace to the annals of New South Wales history. The vindictive sentences passed upon them will bear their own fruit.”