AFTER THE STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 166, 13 January 1914, Page 5

AFTER THE STRIKE.

A MELKE IN WELLINGTON.. ■**. -By Telegraph.—Press Association. "C Wellington, Yesterday, • The most serious melee, since the strike ended occurred between the King's ami Glasgow wharves a night or two ago. While a party of half-a-doBM coal workers, who were new hands, were ■ returning from the Uotorua after 'their ' (lay's work was finished, they were set j upon liy a party of cx-strikera numW- j ing ]."> or 20. A general fracas Occurred, in which bottles, lumps of coal, and I fists were used, and one ex-striker wag j severely handled. His injuries ar* not ! .serious, however. Enquiries show that praetieally no. pillaging lias been reported "since thet strike. Prior to the strike, a '.good J many eoinjilaiuts were made, hut it is i very diffieult to detect the offenders. | A wharf official nays that, compar»df with the aftermath of the 1890 strike,' the present conditions are quiet and peaceful. No very seriouiTscrimmaging between old and limv l»nd»J had occurred, whereas after th» fornierl strike there were clashes for 12 month** j afterwards. > ' ' •

As a result of a conference hetween ' ' employee and the executive of the la- > titration Union, labor foremen have had ' strict instructions to give preference-to? men who joined daring tJie-rtrikite ■ Aap* foreman not conforming to this inatruc.tion is liable to dismissal. Although two or three hundred preference badgeaj ' have been issued, very few were in efi-? deuce- when labor was put on tliirnnorn-J ing. They are not reallv necessaryl however, as the foremen know most on ' the old and new hands hv sight J About 300 or 400 ex-otrikcrg huna 1 about the wharves to-day, unable to ffcfc* work. ' ■