THE STRIKE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 23 September 1890, Page 2

THE STRIKE.

RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. At Dunedin on September 19 Mr G. Newton, President of tbe Dunedin Branch of the Eailway Servants' Society, was requested to attend *ihe manager's office, where were assembled Mr Grant, Traffic Manager Mr Koyane locomotive Engineer, and Mi* Eden, Workshops Manager. , Mr Grant read a telegram from the Commissioners, in which a speech delivered by Mr Newton at a mass meeting q£ Unionists on the 8?h was characterised by the Commissioners as insubordinate and improper for a railway servant to deliver, and calculated to cause disobedience and trouble. The commissioners added that Mr Newton must undertake unreservedly to obey the rules and abstain from inciting men to disorder or disobedience in any way, other wise he sholud resign, or he would be discharged. Mr Newton replied that he did not think the speech quoted could be called an attempt to incite men to disobey orders It had been said that the men wre leaving the Union wholesale, and his speech was a denial of that statement. He had never incited men ; on the contrary, he had held them back as far as possible, and would certainly undertake not to incite disobedience. He should, however, stick to his. Union. Mr Grant said he had no objection to that. He was very glad Mr Newton had promised to ob*y the rules, and be would communicate his answer to the Commissioners Louis Harris, Secretary of the Union, was next brought in, and heard read a telegram in wnich the Commissioners said they had read the advertisement in which Mr Harris counselled the employees to insubordination. They could not permit such practices in the Railway Department. Mr Harris must give an undertaking similar to that required of Mr Newton. The advertisement was as follows : — " The Commissioners are taking a ballot among the employees to discover who will adhere to them in the case ol a general strike. The Executive have therefore issued in structions to all their brandies that they are to reply that before an answer can be given to siu-h a request all the men already suspended must be first reinstated.— L. Harris, Secretary of Otagi Branch." Being asked for an answer, Mr Harris replied that the advertisement was drafted by Mr Winter, one of the Executive, and brought to him to sign as Branch Secretary. It was read over to him in the shed, and he signed it, but he did not take particular notice of it till he paw it in the paper, when he at once saw it was rather far-fetched and out of place. Mr Grant said he supposed, then, he couU say to the- Commissioners that Mr Harris had unwittingly allowed the advertisement to appear, and was sorry for it, and would undertake t » obey the rules and not to incite the men to disobey. Mr Harris answered they might say that he had never incited the men to insubordination. He was too old a railway servant not to see the need for upholding the rules. Mr Grant replied that he was pleased to hear that for Mr Harris' own sake, and would wire the result of th« interterview to the Commissioners. At a Unionist meeting in Dunedin the oth'T day, according to the Ot«go Daily Times someone in the crowd asked Mr Millar to disabuse the mind of a gentleman who had previously inquired if he got a thousand a year.— Mr Mil ai : I get £4 a week, and I get it from the Seaman's Unions. 1 never got a pehny outside of that— A voice : Are you receiving it ffow ? — Mr Millar: I receive nothing now. (Cheers.) Matters generally in connection with the strike are very quiet at Christchurcb, aud not nearly go many of the men on strike are to be seen standing about tin corners or on the wharves. Also at Dunedin everything ig quiet as regards strike matters. There was no demonstration of any kind on the arrival of the Manapouri at the Port or later at Dunedin.