THE SYDNEY STRIKE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 5 March 1913, Page 5

THE SYDNEY STRIKE.

CABLE NEWS

(United Tress Association— IBy Electric Teleijra-ph—Copyright.)

SITrATJON rNc'HANG ED. EREE LABOURERS ENGAGED. COAL LUM.PEIIS CEASE WORK. (Received Last- Night-, 10 o'clock.) SVDNEI, Ma rcli 4. The situation has undergone little change to-day. The strikers are marking time. TJimv state that there will be no development a.s far as they are concerned until the employers re-open negotiat ions.

It is reported that seventy free labourers have been taken on by the Australian Gaslight Company at their city works, and forty by tho North Shore Company; but the inexpert production of gas is very slow, and it has taken the North Shore Company almost throo days to produce a twenty-four hours' supply. If the present rate of production continues, it is unlikely that the service will be renewed for «ome days, unleN.s the unexpected happens, tho .strikers return —or sufficient volunteers offer and more fully man the works for sufficient development. Eighty coal lumpers, engaged on three colliers,unloading for the gas

companies have ceased work, ami declared that they will not work coal if free labourers make the gas. Largo numbers of -strikers spent the day in the vicinity of the works. They wero orderly and quiet, only chaffino; any free labourer or supposed free labourer who made an appearance. A hundred country police have already reached the city, and others are in readiness if required. A special meeting of tho executive of flic Labour Council has been called to discuss the relation of the gasmen's action to the other Unions. After a Cabinet meeting held this morning to discuss the position. Ministers declared that they had nothing to disclose.

Tin* Lord Mayor lias called a public meeting in the Town Hall, for noon to-morrow, with a view to obtaining an expression of public opinion, nnd restoring the supply of gas to the community. Ho will appeal for volunteers to £0 with him to help with the work. He said lie was not going to ask anyone to do anything which he was not preparer] to do himself. The Lord Mayor has the hacking of the heads of the mercantile and other bodies.

MANY VOLUNTEERS OFFERING. OUTCRY FROM PUBLIC AND PRESS, PROMPT MEASURES DEMANDED. ' (Received Last Night, 10.55 o'clock.) SYDNEY, March 4. The Lord Major is receiving many offers from volunteers in all classes. As the situation " becomes more acute through the increasing deadlock in business, the consequent .-hoi'tening of bauds and the threatene.rl further shortening on a more extensive scale, an outcry again.it the victimisation of the community being allowed to continue, is rising from the oress and the public, and while commending the Hon. James McGoweu's manifesto, they demand a prompt measure enforcing the interest of the community being paramount.

INCREASE JUSTIFIED

(Received This Morning 1 o'clock.) SYDNEY, March -1, While condemning the strike, a big section of the public consitl-er the gasmen are justified in demanding a shilling advance. A meeting of the Executive of tho Labour .'Council advised all the unions not to participate in any action against non-unionists without consulting the Council.

the mid-week holiday to select the same day they would he making a move in the right direction. If this were done, there would be less agitation in favour of a universal Saturday half-holiday, with its doubtful benefits and its pronounced commercial inconveniences.—l am, etc., SPORTSMAN. Masterton, March -1, 1913.

THE MEAT STRIKE. (To ihe Editor.) Sir, —I see by the papers every now and then that woine of the clever gentlemen who would blow up all of our companies are pulled up at last. Servo them right : and may they go now and get their deserts, as Mrs Pankhurst has done, every one of them. How many a poor tradesman is over head and ears in difficulty through them. 1. hope in future all men will light shy of these fine gentlemen, swell managers, and very clever men. Men are neither suddenly rich nor suddenly good. Its all a. hag of moonshine when a Minn would persuade you that he knows a way of earning money by winking your eye. We have all heard of the scheme for making deal boards out of sawdust and getting butter out of mud; but wo juean to go on with the meat works and stick to the companies for the future, for between you and nie and the blind mare, we have a notion that the plans of idiots and very clever men are as like two peas in a shell —■ Let dogs <leliglit to bark and Life, And lose the marrow bone; Let bears and lions growl and fight; f let the Federation alone. —I am, etc., H. PRESTON. Masterton,'March 3, 1913.