A meeting of over seventy officers wa» held ' this afternoon, at which a scheme for the ' promotion of a co<operativo steamship com ' pony was discussed and favourably enter ' tamed. Several letters of sympathy were read from unexpected sources, but the members were confident that it would be some time before they would requiro to have 1 recourso to pecuniary assistance. The action of two officers, who were alleged to have made overtures for appointments under the 1 association and are now employed by the Union Company, was ducuasod with a good deal of warmth. INVJtEOABffILL, ;Bept. 11. The Monowai is expected to-morrow or Saturday. The Union Company and mer chants have obtained the names of two hun dred men m the Western district ready to , work cargo. Fifty came m to-day, expecting to start forthwith ; they will beboardod here i till the arrival of the Bteamer. " Who is the Maritime Council ?" This question appears to bo on the lips of most people m Timaru just now. No doubt the members have all been named from time to , timo but no one kept a liet. Some manifestly absurd guesses have been made at the com- I position of the council. i In some other quarters tho question is, I " Who is the Union Company ?" and the. answer given is that it is chiofly Denny ond i Co , the shipbuilders, with the Royal Bank of ; Scotland as their backer, i There is a great attraction m irregular i labour. Th» wharf labourers union at Lyttelton , numbers 460 membors, and it is asserted that I they do not earn an average of 30s per week ; all the year round. Yet they stick to the. business, and cheerfully, rather than seek a , more constant employment, probably on the ; principle that "all work and no play makes Jack a doll boy."- Good pay while they're at i it, and leisure to enjoy whon they'ro not. At a mass meeting of Unionists at Dunedin i on Monday night, one of the speakers re ) erred to Iho frequency of remarks about I " paid agitators " as being at Iho head and I front of their offending. In denying that. 