BUY COAL NOW!

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 121, 31 August 1910, Page 5

BUY COAL NOW!

By Telegraph. —Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. "Is there likely to be a big coal strike soon?" is a question that has been agitating many minds lately. Many hola that the Federation of Labour , is going to cause an upheaval. Colour is lent to this supposition "that a big strike is impending, by a letter read at a meeting of the Northern Wairoa Hospital trustees yesterday. Mr. J. J. Craig, the well-known coal merchant of Auckland, w)rotc asking the committee if they could take 10 torn of coal now for stock, as there was a probability of Jtrouble in 'thei nearfuture. Since a remark made some time ago to the effect that there would be a strike in the coal trade about September, there has been a feeling of uncertainty as to whether there was any reason for such a statement. At first, it was thought that there was nothing in. the matter, but since then the fact that a number of miners' unions have withdrawn from the Arbitration Court, has been considered somewhat significant. At the same time, inquiries made amongst the men by persons in the coal trade, have failed to elicit any information about a strike being contemplated. Still, as a precautionary measure a number of firms have laid in stocks of coal to be ready in the event of the men deciding to /go out. This course has also been adopted by the Auckland Harbor Board, as about 1000 tons of coal are to be stored at Calliope Dock, merely els a- precautionary measure.^.