Page:Notes on New Zealand (1892).pdf/260

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250
NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND.

the Australasian Colonies requires a word of notice. The strike commenced in Australia, and, after the wharf labourers had ceased work, those in New Zealand also struck out of sympathy, and not because they professed to have or put forward any grievances of their own. This placed the employers in a most peculiar position. Even had they been disposed to yield the point, they could hardly be expected to do so, since there was no point to yield. They rose to the occasion, however, and with the aid of volunteer labour in the shape of clerks, members of the athletic clubs, and of the Canterbury University, the work of