The Annie Bow Case [BY TELEGRAPH.]

Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7, 9 July 1888, Page 2

The Annie Bow Case [BY TELEGRAPH.]

{Ow Own Correspondent.) Inveecargill, This Dat. A good deal of dissatisfaction is expressed over the reoent decision of J.P.s, who sentenced several members of the crew of the vessel Annie Bow to terms of imprisonment for alleged diaobedienoe of orders. The outcome of the agitation is the following memorial to the Governor, whioh is being largely signed by business men in town : — ' "We, the undersigned residents of Inveroargill and neighbourhood, beg most respectfully to direct your Excellency's attention to what, in the opinion of your memorialists, iB a oase of hardship : to wit— Four seamen belonging to tho barquentine Annie Bow have been reoently sentenced to imprisonment, with hard labour, for ref ÜBing at sea to prooeed on a voyage in the Baid vessel. Tha oiroumstanoes connected with the refusal of dnty, in the opinion of your memorialists, qualified, if they did not absolutely justify, the aotion of the. seamen. The vessel left port with a full cargo and deckload of timber, bound from the Bluff to South Australia, and shortly after leaving the Bluff encountered very bad weather. The vessel commenced leaking to suoh an extent that she required to be pnmped twenty minutes out of every hour. The pumps were not in good order, and deok cargo had to be thrown overboard. Under the oiroumstances yonr memorialists consider that very strong reasons existed for warranting the crew in believing that in proseouting the voyage they would imperil their lives. Your memorialists would therefore earnestly solioit that the olemonoy of the Crown should interfere to the extent of commuting the sentences passed on these seamen." The pumps have Binoe been repaired, and the vessel left with a new captain and crew.