OYSTER DISPUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 210, 6 September 1938, Page 8

OYSTER DISPUTE.

WAHINE HELD UP.

NEARLY AN HOUR'S DELAY,

PORTION OP CARGO LOADED,

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, Monday.

A dispute between Picton fishermen and Wellington fish merchants, settled just before the time of departure of the Wahine from Lyttelton this evening, caused the delay of the vessel for nearly an hour while part of a load of oysters from Bluff was taken on board. Of the consignment of 350 sacks, 15Q sacks were able to be shipped to Wellington.

The crews of the inter-island steamer expresses Rangatira and Wahine had notified the Union Steam Ship Company that they would not sail if any fish or oysters were shipped from Lyttelton to Wellington. However, at 7.30 this evening a message was received from Mr. F. P. Walsh, president of the New Zealand Seamen's Union, that the dispute had been settled. It was impossible at that stage to deal with the whole of the consignment of oysters which were on the wharf, but the vessel was delayed long enough to enable 150 sacks of oysters to be taken aboard. It is understood that the dispute between the fishermen and merchants is in regard to the weighing of the oysters, the men claiming that the weights should be taken at Picton and the merchants insisting that the weights be taken at Wellington. Most of the fishermen on the New Zealand coast are now members of the Seamen's Union and the union has recently supported the claims of fishermen in other disputes at Wellington and Bluff.