WATERSIDE BATTLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 588, 14 February 1929, Page 9

WATERSIDE BATTLE

FREE WORKERS STONED SCENE AT MELBOURNE POLICE FIRE OVER MOB (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) SYDNEY, Wednesday. A message from Melbourne says there were exciting scenes on one of the wharves there to-day in connection with the timber-workers’ strike. Some volunteer drivers were stoned by strikers from the timber yards until the police intervened and discharged revolvers over the heads of the demonstrators. A policeman chased one of the assailants half a mile. He caught him in a waterside office and dragged him out.. The Timber Merchants’ Association advertised this morning in Sydney newspapers for free labour for the timber mills in the metropolitan area. They announced that, wherever possible, preference would be given to former employees. It is expected that this development will lead to an extension of the strike and that if the appeal for free labour Is successful it will inevitably hasten its collapse. However, officials at the Trades Hall say they are not perturbed by the merchants’ threat to engage volunteer workers. They are of the opinion that they will not secure much of a response to their advertisements. Union officials say they have been advised that in the majority of the yards at Newcastle the 44-hour week has been reverted to, and that ail the men have been re-engaged. A telegram from Canberra states that Mr. W. M. Hughes commented upon the attitude of the trade unions in desiring to withdraw from the Arbitration Court. He said this amounted to a frontal attack on the arbitration system. The men had everything to gain by arbitration, which afforded a relatively economical means of redressing grievances. Their attitude was most ill-considered. INCENDIARISM FEARED TIMBER STACK BURNED FIRE IN MELBOURNE (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) Reed. 10.5 a.m. MELBOURNE, To-day. Incendiarism is suspected as the cause of a fire which destroyed 2,000' feet of timber which was stacked on the wharf, and which the carters and drivers refused to handle. At one time adjacent stacks containing 1,000,000 feet were threatened.