PRIVATE BENEFIT SOCIETIES' COMMISSION.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9737, 27 May 1897, Page 5

PRIVATE BENEFIT SOCIETIES' COMMISSION.

(PBKSS ASSOCIATION TBtEOBAM.) ' iDUNUpIN, May 26. At the Royal Commission on. private Benefit Societies * Mr J. F. Kirby, shipping officer of t*e Union Company, gave evidence refuting a number of statement* made. As to one case mentioned he produced a document to show that the- man was dieiniseed because he was inclined to dcink and uncivil. The discharge showed no fault, because the Company did not wish to prejudice the man from getting employment elsewhere. A man must-be very bad before he got a bud discharge. This man referred to joined another eteamer and wa3 dismissed three months afterwards for drunkenness and abusive language. In another case cited the. report snowed that the man was generally insubordinate and careless about his work.

The Chairman asked if a man did not join the Society, what then ? Witness said in. all probability, he was kept on till the vessel was laid up, Then, if another man, a member of the Society, was available, he would get the plaoe. As to the age limit* the witness pointed oat that it .prevailed in the railway, customs, police, and gaol departments, and if the Government showed the example he did not see why private employers should not have an age limit. The Company did not die* charge old hands, bat hung on to them until they retired themselves. The Company's liabilities, under the Siittjplag and Seamen's Act, bad been met. la 1834 the Company paid £600 on account of persons who had met with accidents; in 1895, £650; and in 1896 £700. Mr T. W. WMteon, Secretary to the Union Company, gave general evidence. Mr A. Morrison, M.H.R., gave evidence as a memberof the Druids, cootending 4 tbat the competition c£ private Benefit. Societies was unfair. . *