FAMINE PRICES AT ADELAIDE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 213, 17 December 1910, Page 5

FAMINE PRICES AT ADELAIDE

RESULT OF THE DRIVERS' STRIKE. LABOR MINISTRY SITS QUIETLY BY. By Cable —Press Association—Copyright. Adelaide, December 10. Intimation that the strike conference has failed caused a tremendous rush for provisions. Eager crowds were waiting before the shops were open, and by ten o'clock flour was selling at lOd per pound, and other goods at proportionate prices. 'Many hotels are out of beer, owing to the inability to cart from the breweries. About 200 brewery employees art idle. Six hundred buildings are in course of erection, and if work is stopped through exhausting the supply of materials, over 4000 men will be thrown out of work. Wealthy men are carting home necessaries of life in motors. There have been many exciting scenes, and the police are apparently powerless. If an attempt is made to drive a cart, the strikers seize it and release the horses. Employers are indignant at the Labor Government declining to take action. The Premier states that he is doing what he can to preserve law and order, but the' Government cannot act in a case of which it has no official cognisance. At the conference the employers offered the eight shillings a day demanded, but declined to reduce hours. The men say the hours are the more important question. An attempt will be made to take a secret ballot of the men. THE STRIKERS STEADFAST. Received 16, 11.40 p.m. Adelaide, December 16. There is little change in the strike position. The strikers rejected the masters' latest proposals for a settlement.