MAUI POMARE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 134, 8 June 1929, Page 11

MAUI POMARE.

POSITION OF NATIVE CREW.

STATEMENT ABOUT WAGES

We have received the following letter, signed by the eighteen native members of the' Maui Pomare's crew: —

"In the reply published in Friday's 'Star' from the agents of the Maui Pomare, it is made to appear that we, the native crew, are not telling the truth as to the amount of money that is owing to us by the Government for services rendered as sailors and stewards on the ship. There are eighteen of us and we were engaged under the following scale of wages." Then follows details of the wages. The total is given as £150. "We have received the wages for April, which we drew in small lots," continues the statement. "The last instalment of £2 10/ each we received on May 31. So far we have received 5/ on account of May's wages. This amount was advanced on Friday, the 7th, having been promised by the Hon. H. Atmore on Thursday! The balance of our claim is made up by a bonus that was promised by the secretary of the Cook Islands Department, who informed us that we were entitled to, and would receive, a bonus of £1 for each month's service from the time we joined the ship." Details of the men's service are- given. Together with the £159 due for wages this makes a grand total of £33(1. "It was mentioned by our interpreter that we had not as yet been discharged from the ship, or in other words, that we had not signed off, and were therefore still on the ship's articles and still entitled to full wages. We were surprised later when informed by the gentleman from the agents' office that we had never signed on and that the Maui Pomare has no articles, as she is a Government yacht and therefore does not require articles. True, we did not sign on as a white sailor would, but we went to the Commissioner's office at our island home, Niue, and the Commissioner asked our names and wrote them each down on some printed forms, which we took to be the ship's articles. From what the gentleman from the agents' office said we gathered that he thinks that we are not any longer entitled to further wages. On this point we do not agree. It was no fault of ours that we were taken ill. We will leave the settlement of this our rightful claim in the hands of those in power, and trust that they will be fair with us."