SHIPS' OFFICERS' DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1277, 4 November 1911, Page 5

SHIPS' OFFICERS' DISPUTE.

NO SETTLEMENT IN SIGHT. .The intervention of Mr. P. Hally, Conciliation Commissioner, in the ships' officers' disputo, docs not yet appear to bo likely to bring about a settlement of the diflorences between owners and officers. Letters wcro sent by tho Commissioner to both parties in terms which were outlined yesterday in The Dominion, and the letters wore considered at meetings which were hold to-day. The guild rejected tho proposal ho made, and the owners sent an acknowledgment, reserving consideration until to-day.

Captain Watson Explains. The reasons why the guild rejected tha suggestion were explained by Captain Watson, the secretary. The guild could not, ho said, consent to a comparison being mado between Auckland and Wellington rates. "What has Auckland to do with Wellington, anyway?" he asked. 'We are satisfied with the Auckland agreement because tho men in Auckland are perfectly satisfied with it. Their conditions up there arc incomparably easier than ours, and they have really got a very fair thing. AVhy, according to the evidence given before us, the longest hours worked in Auckland aro G7 per week, and we had evidence in the Court hero that some of our men worked 118 hours per week. Wo have offered the owners an 81 hours week, and surely that is good enough."

Two Steamers Sailing. An officer of the Waterside Workers' Union said yesterday that the union had received a communication from the guild to the effect that an attempt was being made to get away the Arapawa and Putiki. It was too late for a meeting of the union to bo cnlled to discover what the general opinion of members on the subject was, and consequently no action was taken. But he could say that the union was. in sympathy with the officers in their dispute with the Shipowners' ■ Federation. So far as ho knew, the men who had loaded the vessels mentioned, they were not members of the union, but saitors and others, who wero On the wharves looking for work. Things were bnsy just now, and there was a scarcity of "union men. Ho had wired to the union in Wanganui, to which port the Arapawa sailed last night (the Putiki sails to-day) that ..these vessels had been loaded by strangers.