THE STRIKE AFTERMATH.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10, 12 January 1914, Page 6

THE STRIKE AFTERMATH.

GENERAL CONDITIONS QUIET. NEW HANDS SET UPON. [Per Press Association.] Wellington, January 12. The most serious melee, since the strike ended occurred between the Kings’s and Glasgow wharves a night or two ago. While a party of half a dozen coal workrs, who were now hands, were returning from the Rotorua after their day’s work was finished, they were set upon by a party of ex-strikers, numbering fifteen or twenty, and a general fracas occurred, in which bottles, lumps of coal, and fists were used, and in which one exstriker was severely handled. His injuries were not serious, however. Inquiries show that practically no pillaging lias been reported since the strike. Prior to the strike, a good many complaints were made, but it is very difficult to detect offenders. A wharf official says that compared with ttie aftermath of the 1890 strike, the present conditions are comparatively quiet and peaceful, No very serious scrimmaging between the old and new hands had occurred, whereas after the former strike there were clashes for twelve months afterwards. As the result of a conference between the employers and the executive of the Arbitration Union, the labour foremen have had strict instructions to give preference to men who joined during the strike. Any foreman not conforming to this instruction is liable to dismissal. Although two or three hundred preference badges have been issued, very few are in evidence when labour was put on ibis morning. They are not really necessary, however, as foremen know most of the old and new hands by sight.

• About three or four hundred exstrikers bun 2 about the wharves to-day unable to get work.