SLAUGHTERMEN'S STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 243, 4 March 1913, Page 5

SLAUGHTERMEN'S STRIKE.

POSITION AT' WANGANUI. ] By Telegraph—Press Association. Wanganui, Monday, So far the local meat freezing com- ; pany has been vouchsafed no intimation of the butchers' .strike being declared off, nor have the unionists yet applied to be, reinstated. About thirty learners are on the boards and, whilst the output is necessarily restricted, it is steadily improving. CANTERBURY WORKS. BURYING THE HATCIIET. Christchurch, Last Night. Of the slaughtermen previously employed at Islington who went out on~ strike and who last week applied for work, 28 were selected, which number was subsequently increased to 32. With one or two exceptions, they are steady, married men, residing in the vicinity of the works. All those selected turned up this morning and started work, riiid it was understood that the men are working quietly with those already ,at work, and that there have been no ■.recriminations as between union and.free labor. ~ « At Timaru the same method of selection was followed, and those selected also started work this morning... SERTOUS EFFECT OF THE STRIKE; Wellington, Last Night. "There has been much talk," wd a man in close touch with the slaughtermen's strike, to a pressman to-day, "of the large output of sheep killed by; free laborers. If we take the case of 1 the Gear works, however, we find -that a full board of union men can turn, out 7000 sheep daily, whereas the best clay's tally since the strike has been 2300. They may get'up to' 2500, leaving l still a shortage of 4500, so that on the 2# working days (if March, 100,000 ,sheep fewer will be slaughtered at. thft one works than in March lf)12. Meantime the market for fat stoek is lifeless, farmers getting 3s per head less for sheep than, before the strike. They cannot get rid of fat stock, and, 'making all allowances for learners on the slaughtering boards, they cannot reach the full capacity till towards the end of the second season. T should say' that, farmers will directly lose £75i000 throughout the Dominion as the jjfesnlt of the strike, whereas the wjiofe increase in wages for the season, according to demands, would be under 4JBOOO. This takes no account of the; loss through the decreased exports of frozen meat on a favorable market. If farmers want to save the stock, the next'move must come from them." :