Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/741

LABOUR TROUBLES IN NEW ZI?ALAND 719 found great diffic?ty in fulfilling their engagements. Within a fortnight of the commencement of the strike, associations of employers were formed throughout the colony; at Christchurch their work mainly consisted in opening a labour bureau and organising the country districts, with the view of keeping up regular supplies of labour. Before the formation of the Employers' Association in Christchurch, the arrangements for keeping the port of Lyttelton open were undertaken by a leading merchant, Mr. G. G. Stead, and the Farmers' Co-operative Association of Canterbury, represented by their secretary, Mr. A. H. Turnbull; to these two gentlemen Canterbury, and indeed the colony generally, owes a heavy debt of gratitude. Early in October the Government, acting upon instructions from the House of Representatives, invited employers and em- ployed to meet in conference at Wellington, but the Employers' Associations declined to take part in such a conference, unless the unionists admitted their right to engage free labour, and would consent to work with.free labourers. This the unionists refused to do, and though the Hon. G. M'Lean represented the Union Company, he was the only representative of the employers present, and the conference had no result. The further progress of the strike can only be described as a process of ' fizzling out'; within six weeks of its commencement, the Union Company had resumed the regular running of their steamers and the Railway Commissioners their ordinary train service, which latter had been curtailed, not by a general strike of railway employees, who would not come out as a body, but in consequence of diminished traffic and also with a view to economy of coal. One by one the strikers in every direction found their places filled, and could not, if they would, resume work. Applications were made to the Government to afford facilities to the strikers to take up land, and even before the strike was formally ended the employers' associations were abjectly entreareal for work. At present we have the melancholy spectacle of men, than whom it would be difficult to find a finer body, reduced to poverty through their loyalty to leaders, who from first to last have done nothing but exhibit their unfitness for the trust reposed in them. The present position of affairs in Lyttelton is as follows :- Emanating from the Employers' Association, a company has been formed called the Canterbury Stevedoring Association, its objects being to carry on the trade of the Port of Lyttelton and provide labour for the same. Its articles provide that no dividend