[?]Nreliable Waterfront

[?]Labour

[?] New Guinea

Rabaul, June 2.

the Administration handed *5 stevedoring to private enter prise in Rabaul early this year, [,he major problem has been the ancertainty of labour. Native pro mises to come in and work ships irequently are not kept.

Various unsuccessful attempts vere made to solve the problem and 11 seemed lost until the stevedores ecided to contact the men direct, o far this has worked satisfac torily; in fact in some cases more ban sufficient men have turned up t the call.

Unlike the union-controlled men lown south, the Tolai does not pre ■ent logs of claims and hold stop /ork meetings. He just doesn’t pre ent himself for work as agreed pon, and sometimes for the most mazing reasons.

Recently, when the men did not rrive to take over a night shift as equested, a visit to the village re ealed two truck loads ready and waiting—but there was only suflfi ient petrol in the tanks to get hem to Rabaul, and the men would ot budge until the return journey 'as assured.

It was decided to ask the Kiaps o help, and ADO Ken Jones haired a meeting at which he told

delegates that the native coun cillors had instituted a system of registration amongst natives who work on the waterfront. A confer ence with the natives followed and

all seemed reasonably settled. How ever, at the first asking for labour on a Saturday no one offered; the reason given was that they had not received the call in time.