"ON THE BEACH."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 106, 7 May 1929, Page 8

"ON THE BEACH."

STRANDED SAILORS' PLIGHT.

LEFT IN HOSPITAL. INJUSTICE TO GOOD MEN. "OPEN HATE FOE CROOKS." Seamen, more often than their ships, are likely to get stranded; which condition they usually refer to as being "on the beach." Auckland has a well-defined "beach." It includes the wharves and Quay Street, and extends thence up Queen Street to Customs Street, up Customs Street and around the corner as far as the Government Shipping Office in Albert Street. At intervals along the curbside in this area the stranded mariners foregather to swap yarns of doubtful veracity and borrow each others' tobacco. Navy blue suits, light shoes, slate blue or light grey cloth caps, and scarves in the place of collars, distinguish them from the rest of ma.nkind. Their unfortunate position, too, is peculiar to their trade. They are stranded, penniless, out of work, without a friend on this side of the. world. And because, from time immemorial, sailors have been left stranded all over the world, no one takes any notice. Left in Hospital. This is.a typical story, told by one William BeMiaw, fireman: "I ef/:e to New Zealand as fireman in the Canadian National steamer Canadian Winner, which arrived at Auckland on March S. That evening, returning to my ship from u short trip up town, I was knocked down by a motor car. I was taken backto the ship and the captain sent me to the hospital, where I was X-rayed and found to have a broken ankle. While I was in the hospital the captain came up and signed me clear of the ship and she sailed without me. From the hospital I went to the Sailors' Home, but later shifted to cheaper lodgings. Afterwards, when I went to draw the balance of my wages, which had been left with the shipping master, I was told that my hospital and board expenses left me 6/0 in debt to the company. That is how I came to be stranded here. I can't get a ship because I doivt belong to the local union. Sometimes I oat and sometimes I don't; sometimes I lie in a bed, and sometimes I don't. But what's to be done ?" The local office of the Canadian National Steamships placed a hundred pounds with the shipping master to pay the man's expenses if the accident was attributed to them. This is required bv law. Inquiry showed that the accident happened outside the company's jurisdiction and the money was refunded minus the <i/l> debt which the fireman had contracted. As the man has been signed off they have no further interest in him. This is but one of hundreds of cases. The only saving feature of the position is that foreigners and Asiatic seamen, even though British subjects, cannot be discharged here. In all cases the immigration laws apply, but that still leaves room for a great deal of harshness in the signing off of Engiish and Canadian seamen. , Shifts for Living. As the men themselves admit, they do not make good citizens ashore. That is often why they go to sea. On land they are out of their element, and, not being in the local union, they cannot j even ship in coastal or intercolonial vessels. They must take their chance of getting the few vacancies that occur in foreign-going vessels, and competition is keen. Meanwhile it is a difficult task to keep body and soul together. Sometime, sooner or later, when his clothes are all in pawn and his remaining assets nil, the stranded sailor may become 'i '"seagull." That is, he spends his time on the wharves, begs his food from the waterside workers or from the ships, smokes and drinks at the expense of his free-handed fellows that come ashore from the vessels, and, if lucky, sleeps with them in the fo'c'sle. Sometimes he can persuade the crew of one of the intercolonial vessels to keep him in the fo'c'sle, and he leaves for Australia. Otherwise he usually ends up in the hands of the police. Those police officers who come most in contact with the seafaring world complain that the position is growing insupportable, no less because of its effect on

the city's welfare than because of the hardship it inflicts on the men. Nearly, every day one or more of men "on the beach" are gathered in by the police and appear at the court on vagrancy charges. Often the charges are more serious. In many instances the men are discharged from their ships because they are no good, and if, under the strict discipline at sea, they cannot be handled, they are still more likely to give trouble ashore, where they are hungry and homeless. The majority of cases of robbery with violence, assault and theft from shops are, the police declare, the work of sailors who have been discharged here from overseas vessels. Entry of Criminals. "Some of these men are criminals, pure and simple," states one detective. •'They join a ship to escape the law in their" own country, and, proving useless at sea. are discharged at the first port of call in New Zealand. That is usually Auckland. With only a bad discharge to show, such men have no likelihood of joining another vessel —even if they wanted to, which they don't—against the competition of so many good men who are stranded here. They give us endless trouble. Auckland has a regular gang of them, real bad characters. To allow men to be signed off here as they are is opening the gate wide to all sorts of crooks and toughs. If a man is no good to the company that employed him he is no good to this country." Eventually many of these men are disposed of by the magistrates, who can make the company which brought them take them back, either as members of the crew or as distressed seamen. Men from tramp steamers can be put aboard the vessels of any other line and sent home, the cost of their passage being billed to the ship that they arrived by. Some of the men who know this—tho "sea lawyers" amongst their shipmates —voluntarily give themselves up to thu police when they are destitute. But the greater proportion carry on by strange shifts until they are "raked in." Chance to Sober Up. The manager of the Auckland Sailors' Home (Mr. H. Bailey) stated this morning that some of the seamen giv\; so much trouble that they cannot bo accommodated at the home. A sailor seeking accommodation until he couli get a ship was given every chance, and if a man came to the home inebriated he was given several days to get sober. If he continued to make a nuisance of himself there was no option but to turn him out into the street. Occasionally there had been instances of very bad behaviour, and that could not be tolerated. Mr. Bailey said that there was a man in the home in the moment who drew £42 at the shipping office, but he soon lost every penny of it through the attention o*f a waterfront gang.