ALLEGED INTIMIDATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 28, 23 June 1914, Page 5

ALLEGED INTIMIDATION.

ANOTHER WATERSIDE CASE. By Telegraph—Press Association, Gicymouth, Last Night. The Supreme Court was engaged all this afternoon in hearing the case of J. W. Coetzee, who claimed £2OO from the secretary and members of the Greymouth Port Waterside Workers' Union for alleged intimidation and coercion. The plaintiff alleges that he liad been engaged on the wharf, and was a member of the Union. On May 3, the Union passed a resolution calling upon the plaintiff to attend a meeting and answer a charge of acting contrary to the rules of the Union, and a letter to that effect was sent to the plaintiff. The meeting was fixed for May 10. On May 4 the defendant, Tillyshort, secretary of the Union, informed the firemen of the various companies working vessels at the port that the plaintiff had been suspended by the Union for carrying news out of the Union. Plaintiff attended the meeting on the tenth. The defendant Tillyshort read a letter accusing the plaintiff of refusing to work with a man named Anderson on a timber waggon. Plaintiff denied the charges, but was unable, owing to the acts of the defendants, to obtain work on the wharf. Defendant denied that the plaintiff was a member of the Union, or that he had been employed on the wharf by the shipping companies. lie also denied that a special meeting was called on May 10 to deal with plaintiff, and that the liremen of the companies were informed of plaintiff's suspension; moreover, if the plaintiff wa« accused of the matter referred to there was ample justification for the charges. Evidence for the plaintiff occupied the whole of the afternoon.