SHIPPING TROUBLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 7

SHIPPING TROUBLE.

ALLEGED CONSPIRACY. J ACTION AGAINST UNIONS. c i 1 SYDNEY, May 10. i The hearing has commenced of charges E of alleged conspiracy against union officials in connection with the Port £ Lyttelton deadlock. h ! t Captain Hollis, marine superintendent j. of the Commonwealth and Dominion -. Line, stated in evidence that he had received a message from the captain of the Port Lyttelton at Launceston stating that the crew had refused to take the vessel to sea unless they received a bonus _ of £20, as it was claimed the ship was Z unseaworthy. Witness later attended a meeting of dock, officials and members of ' the transport group at Cockatoo Island, and related the owners' side of the dispute in connection with the Port Lyttelton and Port Curtis. At the meeting, Mr. Hcffron, speaking for the transport group, said he would not touch the ships untij the men of the Port Curtis were released and warrants against the men of the Port Lyttelton withdrawn. ( Cross-examined, Captain Hollis said that after the Port Lyttelton went aground at Launceston in January, they put to sea in a vessel making 100 tons of "water hourly, but he claimed that the vessel was seaworthy. At the meeting £ at Cockatoo Island witness asked Fa Ik- . ingham. the Seamen's Union /representa- - .tivc,. whether the men agreed to take the Port Lyttelton to jsca for a bonus r Falkinpham rep_lied by asking whether witness had not known cases of men taking "coffin, ships" to sea for a . considerable increase in pay. l The manager of the Cockatoo Dock n (Mr.-Pavne) stated that on February 20 a he saw the two union officials, McDonald t and Shearer. They told him that the p Port Lyttelton had been declared t "black," and that no work would be done. They said they spoke as delegates v from their respective unions in the ~ transport group.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.)