Strike At Lautoka.

Trouble With Sugar Mill Labourers in Fiji.

From Our Own Correspondent.

Suva, Feb. 3.

ON January 11, word was received in Suva that a strike of Indian and Fijian labourers had occurred at th,e Lautoka sugar mill. Details were meagre, but on the 13th it was an nounced that the trouble had been set tled.

It appears that a proposed change in the system of paying the labour led to the strike. The custom of the C.S.R.

Co. in the past, when dealing with, Eu ropean and half-caste employees, was to keep one pay in hand, this to be given over at the completion of employment.

Apparently the Co. attempted to apply this system lndian and Fijian la bour who are *paid weekly.

When their week’s pay was withheld, the labourers immediately went on strike.

They organised pickets and such essen tial services as the delivery of milk, meat, etc., had to be carried out by Eu ropeans. The C.S.R. train was taken out by a half-caste engineer, the regular In dian driver being prevented from doing so by his compatriots.

Eventually the Co. acceded to the de mands of the labour—a fact which caus ed considerable comment throughout the Colony, old hands remarking that it was most unlike the C.S.R. to give in on such a matter.

Mr. W. Macarthur King, of the Colon ial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd., Fiji, is at present* spending furlough at Tamworth, N.S.W., with his family.

Rabaul Electricity Ltd.’s interim divi dend at the rate of 3J per cent, for the half-year to December 31 h#s been de clared payable on February 28.