HINEMOA HELD UP.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19726, 17 September 1929, Page 8

HINEMOA HELD UP.

MEN'S DEMANDS ON NEW OWNERS. [THE PRESS Special Berries.] AUCKLAND, September 16. Owing to a dispute between the Seamen's Union and the owners of'the steamer Hinemoa regarding the number of firemen to'be carried and the rates of pay for seamen, the departure of the vessel, which was to have sailed for Westport and Bluff at 4 p.m. to-day,' has been indefinitely postponed. The men are asking for a crew of six firemen and wages of £ 1 a day for the seamen. Mr Brown, representative of Spedding, Ltd., local agents for D. W. McKay, Ltd., of Invercargill, owners of the ship, said the deadlock occurred prior to the signing on of a crew. The Shipping and Seamen's Act, he stated," provided for three firemen, Whereas the m*u were asking for double that number. With regard to the : rates of pay, he said, an agreement between the Shipowners' Federation and the Union provided for a 25 per cent, increase on the ordinary wages for seamen, of whom the ship's complement comprised seven, for short trips. The refusal of the men in the first instance was contrary to the Act, while in the seftond ease a breach of the agreement was being committed. Mr T. F. Anderson,, secretary of the Seamen's Union, said the inen's requests were perfectly justified, and it was a case of the owners trying "to suck the orange dry." When the Hinemoa was owned by the Government the vessel, he said, always carried six firemen. As there were four furnaces on the ship the services of the extra men were required, the firemen not being carried for "ornament." It was not usual to abide strictly by the letter of the Act, and no- vessel of similar' tonnage on the New Zealand coast carried fewer than six firemen. As the Hine moa was only going to Bluff, where the crew would be paid off, a 25 per cent, increase in the seamen's wages was not adequate. The Hinemoa was recently purchased by D. W. McKay, Ltd., for the running of the South Island tourist service. The ship was to have "bunkered" at Westport and remained at Bluff until the commencement of the tourist, season. The short passagp to Bluff would have been the Hinemoa's maiden trip under her new owners.