CRIMPING OF SEAMEN.
THE __WCASTL_ DISGLOSTJSES. A GRAVE SCANDAL. NEW ZEALAND'S GOOD EECOED. (By Telegraph.—Own Corressen<_«■_. CHRISTCHUBCH, this day. In an interesting article published by the Lyttelton "Times"' Captain Marcel, the Government's marine agent at Lyttelton, writes: "'That crimping goes on in a most discreditable manner in at least one port (Newcastle) of-the Australian Commonwealth is abundantly clear from the disclosures niade before the Navigation Commission in Sydney recently. It was there shown that the plight of 'Jack' is pitiable in the extreme. He is, under the eyes of the authorities,, decoyed from his ship, made drank, and placed on board some other vessel, much as if he were a bale of merchandise. Part of the 'blood money' earned in this proceeding is paid by the shipmaster out of the wages of some other deserter from his ship and divided between the twin bloodsuckers, the crimp (or boardinghouse-keeper) and his satellite, the "runner' (or decoy). The latter, whose unenviable duties appear to be to decoy seamen from their ships by specious promise, make them hideously drunk, and 'shanghai' them oil' to some other vessel ready for sea, so'that they | wake from their drunken or drugged debauch to find themselves on the briny, sans money, sans clothes, often with an injured constitution, and with, perhaps, two months' wages gone, to help to pay for their decoy and debauch, and to furnish the 'crimp' and runner with the wherewithal to further practise their ! abominable calling and grow fat. That such a state of things can go on in a j British colony under the British flag and in full view of the authorities is a scandal iof so grave a nature that its abolition at an early date should be a certainty. It behoves us in New Zealand to inquire whether anything of the kind exists among us." | A representative of the Wellington "Evening Post" had an interview with Mr Young, the secretary of the Wellington branch of the Australasian Seamen's Union, in order to learn his Views on the matter. Mr Young said, among other things: "So far as Wellington is ; concerned there is a certain amount of it going on. We know that it is carried jon by one particular man. I have spoken to this person openly, charging him I with the offence, and have told him that 'if opportunity offers he will be switched up as far as tbe law will permit. Asked whether he had heard of cases in Auckland, Dunedin, or Lyttelton, Mr Young stated that none had come within his knowledge, but it waa only feasible to say that as the system operated in Wellington it would also exist at the three other chief ports. If the lynxeyed secretary of the Seamen's Union has for all the years he has watched over sailors' interests in Wellington on behalf of his union only one suspected man under his observation, it wil] be safe to say that the evil is non-existent there, and if the other chief ports can only be dragged into suspicion on the assumption that because there is one suspected man in Wellington there may, be one at each of the other chief ports, the case against New Zealand as a crimping ground of sailors fa.lls to tht earth. The reas-ons are not far to seek. Our enlightened Government I ha- cared for sailors by legislation as no other Government in the wor_d ha* cared for them. The passing of the Shipping and Seamen's Act of 190' should render crimping in New Zealand as extinct as the dodo. Penalties are provided for boarding-house canvassing among sailors within 24 hours of the ship's arrival at a port, enticing men to desert, and for harbouring a deserter. These acts are punishable by heavy fines or imprisonment, but the crux of the whole matter, to my mind, lies in the ready accessibility of the various superintendents of mercantile marine at the various seaports in New Zealand, to their holding office under the General Government, and to the fact that engagements and discharges of seamen in foreign going ships are always made and ratified before them. Further than this, the Act provides that in the case of New Zealand ships, any surplus remaining from the moneys earned by any deserter from any ship shall be paid over to the superintendent, who shall pay it int the public account of the colony. This provision, in my opinion, strikes at the root of the whole matter. Owners or masters of vessels are not allowed under the New Zealand Act to make a prQfit out of the misdeeds of their seamen. The law also provides for the proper punishment by the Courts of deserters, and if they were more frequently ar raigned before the Courts for desertion they would not be allowed to escape from the frying pan of their ship to fall into the fire that awaits them on certain portions of the Australian shores. Australia is. I notice, likely to take our Shipping Act as a model. The sooner the better, surely, after these nauseous disclosures."
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Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 72, 24 March 1906, Page 6
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847CRIMPING OF SEAMEN. Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 72, 24 March 1906, Page 6
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