“Absolute Power” Of Master Mariner

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29827, 21 May 1962, Page 13

“Absolute Power” Of Master Mariner

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON. May 20. Few dictators and no Cabinet Minister enjoyed the same absolute power as the master of a ship, said the Governor - General (Lord Cobham) at the annual dinner of the New Zealand Company of Master Mariners in Wellington on Friday evening. “He is judge, jury and executioner rolled into one. He is solely responsible for his decisions and ail rests upon his judgment,” Lord Cobham said. The dinner, held on board the New Zealand Shipping Company’s Rangitoto, was attended by more than 100 guests, including many noted mariners in the overseas and coastal trade. “To British ears the word ’mariner’ has a fine salty tang and it has been employed with great effect by the poets of our race. “I always envy master mariners, not only their resonant title, but also their omnipotence,” Lord Cobham said. Few men were paid less for

carrying such a load and yet the profession was a dedicated one. Of the fine qualities needed to perform these duties necessarily the greatest of all was loyalty. "I have travelled with the masters of three New Zealand ships—Captain Duncan McDonald, of the old Makura, Captain ‘Tex’ Maltby, of the Rangitane, and Captain Lettington, of the Rangitiki, which brought my family to New Zealand. “I remember all three with respect and affection We owe all master mariners a debt which is indeed hard to repay. “Between the Royal Navy and the Merchant Service there is the kind of affectionate and yet astringent rivalry which one recognises only as existing between welltried friends "One saw it in war-time convoys.” Lord Cobham said A toast to his Excellency was proposed by the Wellington harbourmaster (Captain D M. Todd) and the warden of the company (Captain K D Mitchell) gave an outline of its activities and purooses since its foundation in 1929

Vaccine Imports.— Sabin oral anti-poliomyelitis vaccine would be imported from the United States as soon as possible, the Australian Minister for Health (Senator H W. Wade) said today.—Canberra, May 20.