DELAYED AT SYDNEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 208, 3 September 1927, Page 12

DELAYED AT SYDNEY.

SfEAMER MAHENO ARRIVES. troubxiE with stewards. SOME PASSENGERS LEFT BEHIND. ■4i scramble to catch the steamer Maheno when she eventually sailed from Sydney at 5 p.m. on Tuesday for Auckland was the experience of a number of passengers who arrived to-day. They said that they did not know until after three o'clock that the vessel was to sail | at 5.30 p.m. The yhurriedly gathered their small luggage from hotels and other places where they had been lodging. Some who had booked passages had the misfortune to mias the steamer, although their luggage had been placed on board. Ninety-five passengers suffered because of the Maheno being held Up from Friday, August 28, to Tuesday, August 30. Several transferred to the Marama, sailing from Sydney to Wellington, and seventy made the passage by the Maheno. Objections by the Men. The hold-up was due to a demand for the replacement of the chief and second stewards. The cooks and stewards refused to go to sea unless this was done. On the afternoon of the day on which the trouble developed the stewards, dressed in mufti, walked ashore in a body to the accompaniment of shouts of encouragement from the firemen. The Maheno is on New Zealand articles and the company's representatives at the outset-suggested that the dispute should be held over until the Maheno reached New Zealand, where the owners and the representatives of the uniop,. could confer. Although they cabled to their union, the men would not accept its suggestion, and they ceased work. v Consideration was given to the matter by the men during the period of the holdup, and ultimately it was decided by a majority to go to sea. Several of those who disagreed with the decision left the steamer. Statement by Stewarts. From some of the stewards it was learnt that trouble had been gathering for Bome time on the Maheno, because they felt that four men had been victimised on a previous voyage for objecting to the chief and second stewards. On this last trip, they said, a man who had spoken up at a union meeting concerning the actions of the second steward" was victimised and discharged in Sydney. That was why they had as a Whole refused to go to sea tinder the existing conditions. Firemen Not Responsible. The firemen on the Maheno are anxious to dispel the belief that they were in any way responsible for the hold-up in Sydney. There had been various attempts, they said, to attribute the trouble to the firemen and stokers. They have "a very good crowd" in their part of the ship, and they were rather proud of " their efficiency. " ' What'the men said was confirmed by the engineer officers. They gave the firemen and stokers credit for being very good workers, and stated that they were ready to sail at any time from Sydney.

The Potato Episode. When it was known that the cooks and stewards were prepared to leave port, one of the officers,-knowing where some of the firemen were to be found, went up town and returned with about : half a dozen of. them in a taxi. As they came, on the wharf> so it was stated, a photographer from one of the Sydney newspapers proceeded to take their* photograph. . . , The firemen and stokers were rather annoyed - because they thought that newspapers in Sydney had inferred that they, and not the stewards, were mainly responsible for the hold*up. They therefore objected to running the risk of being photographed as,' a group of strikers, and one of the number knocked the camera to the ground. Potatoes were thrown, a detective proceeded to arrest the leader of. the attack, the firemen intimated that if he was taken off they would not sail, the authorities agrepa ;tahim, to Join the ship, the Maheco moved away from the jetty, and the departing firemen, continuing their fusilade of potatoes, knocked the hat off the head of a representative of the shipping: company who was standing on the wharf.- Soon the Maheno was steaming over" smooth seas and Sydney and trouble were left behind.