At the Waterfront.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 26, 1 September 1911, Page 17

At the Waterfront.

Capt. Price, a well-known' identity at Weetportj has retired from his post of foreman for the U.S.S. Co. at that port. Mr. Gill, of Lyttelton, is spoken off as his probable successor. * ■ * *

Auckland reports ' that the- Shaw, Savill and Albion Company have undertaken their own stevedoring at Sugartown. The result has been disastrous, considering that a number of men have been more or less seriously injured. One man received a, fine of £5 or 14 days' imprisonment throiigh a fracas with Harry Trant, late pannikin boss of Wellington- Trant seems to have been severely mauled, as the report concludes, by saying "that he has a nose that I (our correspondent) would iuot carry for £5 a day."

A recent motion, significant of antimilitarist propaganda at Auckland, was passed unanimously by the Watea- - side<rs' Union: —That this Union accords its utmost support to the AntiMilitary Council, a>ndj further, that we turn out with our banner and participate in the demonstration."

The Waterside Federation should follow this enthusiasm., by placing a standing resolution on the minutes of the conference at Auckland resolving to resist to the utmost any efforts to transport munitions of war over any wharf in New Zealand, and send a copy of the resolution to the British Waa- Office, together with a resolution from the miners refusing to dig coal which Avill be used to propel ships of war, pending the matter in dispute being referred to The Hague Arbitration Tribunal. This will show the trend of feeling in this country and hasten the day of international arbitration in cases of this character. We workers have no quarrel, we will be tools no longer. Let those fight who have all to gain ; we have all to lose by war.

Auckland watersiders have been singularly unfortunate lately. Mr. R. Stubley had two ribs broken and other severe contusions- by being struck by a sling of raw sugar and dashed against a stanchion on board the s.s. Kurow. Mr. Jaus. Young had his leg broken whilst working at the Waitemata on the wharf. He was removing a sling of produce from the after hook —there -being two gangs working at tbo hatch, when a sling from the forward hook came out and dropped on top of the unfortunate man. "It was a miracle, 3, states a bystander, "that he was not killed." This damnable rushing system and the miserable slavedrivers who earn their wage of supervision 'by rushing our toilers require a decided check along the whole N.Z. coast.

E. E. Canharn, J. Collet, E. W. Webb and Geo. Bennett were elected as delegates to represent the Auckland Union at the waterside conference held in the sugar port this week.

A cable was received by the secretary of the Wellington Waterside Union from Mr. Gosling and Ben Tillet, London, asking if it was possible to block the N.Z.S. Co. and the S.S. and A. vessels at Wellington owing to their miserable attitude towards the London dockers.

was certainly no one working in. the interests of the capitalistic class then; most of the members present at the evening meetings appeared to be workers, and none of the principals struck on© as being capable of the treachery your correspondent foresees.

Socialism is undoubtedly the. hope of the future, but that fact must not blind us to the other forces working among us for progress. And if the suffragettes, with their pageants and processions, their martyrdoms and imprisonments and literature, had done nothing but educate the people , of the United Kingdom to a proper Tinderstanding of tho injustice meted out by the law to the mothers and wives of the nation, then they would have deserved well of all women, Socialists included, for that education brings the day of universal adult suffrage infinitely nearer than it waiS 10 years ago —Yoursj etc.,

C. KIRKBY E. GIBSON.

Auckland