POSITION AT WANGANUI.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 3 November 1913, Page 5

POSITION AT WANGANUI.

LABOUR MEMBER INTERVIEWED. ENTRAINING OF SPECIAL CONSTABLES. WANGANUI, Last Night. Mr W. A. Veiteb, Labour M.P., interviewed to-day in connection with the strike, said the .solution of the diffi ulty was this: "Parliament should undertake to say that certain conditions of work are .irast and fair, so far as the watersidera are concerned, and should invite the watersiders to agree to them. The lOnion Steamship Company, and other .slr.powri*ers should be approached, and should be compelled to accept reasonable terms. This was .quite possfble. The Government had power. If the owners were obstinate, the Government should do as Mr Seddon once

did. It should threaten to take away from the owners the cream of their business, and they could do it. The owners are just as responsible for the present position of affairs as the strikers. The, strikers are now willing to go back. The Union Company should not be allowed to gain an advantage for themselves, simply because public opinion is against the strikers." On Saturday evening nearly 170 special constables, their horses and excess horses, were entrained (fit va-, rious stations between Palmerstoai .North and Hawera, joining the Main Trunk special at Palmerston at 9.30. Aspeeial train on Monday brings a Taranaki contingent. Work on the wharves ls progressing smoothly, though one or two agitators favour a strike. Tho ships in port includo the Ngatoro, with coal ordered on from New Plymouth. Plenty of work is available for labour offering, and there seems no immediate prospect of a strike locally, at anyrate. until the steamers loaded by free labour come along. In common with other places, juices havo rise:i considerably since the strike began. The bakers are getting Very short, of flour.