LUMPERS' STRIKE AT PATEA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 218, 23 December 1910, Page 5

LUMPERS' STRIKE AT PATEA

' POSITION IN THIRD-RATE PORTS. Mr. D. McLaren, M.P., was able to cast some light upon the waterside workers' trouble at Patea when seen by a reporter in Wellington on Wednesday. The wages of waterside workers-were adjusted, Mr. McLaren said, by the proportion of trade done by a port, ana the men at Patea were merely asking for the same rate of pay as was obtained at other third-rate ports, viz., Is Gd per hour during the day and 2b 6d for overtime. This was the rate that was being paid at Wanganui and other ports of the same grade. They required the extra money in order to subsist, as the work was much more irregplar than it was in first or second-rate ports. The wages in Wellington were Is 3d per hour ordinary rates, and 2s for pvertime, and in second-rate ports Is ,6d and 2s per hour respectively was.'paid. There were only about twenty men concerned at Patea, but it was not fair that they should be paid less than what was being obtained at ports at which similar conditions exist. Some of the men engaged in waterside work at Patea were said to have averaged about £1 per week last year, which was not a living wage.