DISPUTED GANGWAY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 118, 14 February 1944, Page 4

DISPUTED GANGWAY

Waterfront Controller Asserts Its Safety

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, February 12. Replying to union statements concerning the dismissal of the hundred watersiders who refused'to board a ship, the gangway of which, they said was unsafe, the Waterfront Controller, Captain C. V. Standjch, stites that the men’s allegation that the gangway was unsafe was not the view held by other officers and himself. It was significant that no such objection was raised by the officers and crew of the vessel, and that the members of the harbourmaster's staff who patrolled the wharves regularly had no adverse reports to make nor had the Marine Department, which was entrusted with administering the regulations pertaining to safety in connexion with the loading and discharging-of vessels. Captain -Standich added that the authorities administering the regulations had 1 advise;! him that the gangway was safe, that it complied with the regulations, and had 'ben used by the same ship in exactly the same manner on many previous occasions. Further, the gangway had been in constant use and 1 without alteration since the vessel arrived, and to his knowledge no person had suffered any mishap. -The normal procedure was adopted in the case of men- who were subsequently dismissed, they being stood' down for the duration of the particular job on which they were engaged. Captain Standich added that he understood that non-unionists who refused to go on board the vessel stated that they were acting under instructions. "The suggestion of Mr. Barnes that a public inquiry should be held regarding the Waterfront Control Commission is, in my opinion, a very excellent one,” said Captain Standich. “I invite him to prosecute it further, when it would probably be learned that the provocative acts of the commission, if such are to be found, arc differences of opinion arising from an endeavour to obtain the maximum degree of efiiciency in the dispatch of shipping, which, it jnust be fully appreciated, is the lifebloo'd of New Zealand.”