INVERCARGILL NOTES

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 161, 9 July 1888, Page 2

INVERCARGILL NOTES

A SEAMEN'S GRIEVANCE. Invebcargill, this day. A good deal of dissatisfaction is expressed over the recent decision of J.P.s who son. tenced several members of the crew of the vessel Annie Row to a term of imprisonment for alleged disobedience of orders. The outcome of the agitation is the following memorial to the Governor, which is being largely signed by business men in town :—'.' We, the undersigned residents of In ver car gill and neighbourhood, beg most respectfully to direct Your Excellency's attention to what, in tho opinion of your memorialists, is a case of hardship, to wit, four seamen, belonging to tho barquentine Annie liow, have been recently sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for refusing at sea to proceed on a voyage in tho said vessel. The circumstances connected with the refusal of duty, in tho opinion of your memorialists, qualified, if they did not absolutely justify, the action of tho seamen. The vessel left port with a hll cargo and a deck load cf timber, bound from Bluff to South Australia, and shortly after leaving BlufF encountered very bad weather—the vessel commenced leakincr to such an extent that she required to be pumped twenty minutes every hour. The pumps were not in good order; the deck cargo had to be thrown overboard. Undor thn circumstances your memorialists consider that very strong reasons existed for warranting tho crew in believing that in proceeding on the voyage they would imperil their lives. Your memorialists would, therefore, earnestly solicit that the clemency of the Crown should interfere to the exteut of commuting tho sentences passod on the seamen." The pumps have since been repaired, and the vessel left with a new captain and crew.