CONTROL OF THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 9, 11 January 1907, Page 6

CONTROL OF THE SEA.

—^ SHIPPING INTERESTS AND THE MARITIME CONFERENCE. NEW' ZEALAND DELEGATES. CERTIFICATED OFFICERS DISAPPOINTED. It has been decided that New Zealand will bo represented as follows at the Maritime Conference to be held in London in March next: — Sir Joseph Ward, Prime Minister; Mr. James Mills, chairman of directors of the Union Steamship Company; Mr. William Belcher, Dunedin, general secretary of the New Zealand Seamen's Union. SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION. So far* the following matters have been eet down on the Qrder-paper for discussion by the representatives of this country :— (1) The question as to the right of the colony to interfere with the manning of intercolonial trading vessels, as in the Auchen Blae case. (2) The question as to the jurisdiction of the colony over vessels not registered in it. (3) The question as to the navigatioa laws of the Empire regarding coastwise trade. (4) Tho question TejraTding collisions and salvage. (5) Matters arising out of the Shipping and Seamen's Act, 1903. THE AUCHEN BLAE CASE. This case arose at Auckland over two years ago. The New Zealand Government, under our shipping laws 4 , at first insisted on the vessel being surveyed and having her compasses adjusted. The steamer traded between Auckland and Fiji, and as sh.:> wat> furnished with a certificate at Lloyds, and equipped in accordance with tho British Merchant Shipping Act, the captain contended that he. was not subject to colonial authority. After some delay the department did not insist on the vessel swinging to adjust her compasses, and she was allowed to proceed on the understanding that a licensed adjuster visited the steamer at the discharging berth, and granted a certificate. The captain complained of having to increase his crew by three greasers and a coal trimmer, and asserted that this was unreasonable, as the vessel carried a sufficient crew for her work. Before a clearance was granted, however, he was compelled to comply with the requirements. AN INDIGNANT BODY OF MEN. The shipmasters, officers, aud engineers — the certificated employees in the maritime service — aro indignant at the fact that they are not directly represented on the Imperial Navigation Conference. The masters contend that they, in tho main, are charged with the administration of the shipping regulations. A Post reporter spent a couple of hour 3 to-day amongst captains y and officers, and the executive officers of the Merchaut Service Guild of Australia, the Shipmasters' Association, and the Institute of Marine Engineers. In each instance the collective opinion was the same. The certificated branches of the service do not object to Mr. Belcher's appointment, but they say they are justified in assuming that he will be more directly interested in representing the interests of the seamen than anybody else, while they also assume that Mr. James Mills will be found concerning himself about the owners' interests. They aro in no way palliated by a suggestion that the business of the conference will not directly affect their immediate status or views, or that the deliberations of the delegates will be purely connected with international, or, at all events, inter-Imperial questions. They say the seamen are to have their interests directly represented, and they aro surely entitled to similar treatment. When our reporter approached Captain D. J. Watson, secretary of the New Zealand branch of the Merchant Service Guild of Australasia, he was shown a letter written on behalf of that body to the Premier in September last, suggesting that Mr. A. R. Hislop, secretary of the Institute of Marine Engineers, should bj chosen to represent the certificated men in the marine service. _ " That clearly indicated," he said, "what our view of the matter was." It is practically certain that the Shipmasters' Association Mill consider the matter at an early date. That association •did not make any suggestion to the Government about the appointment of a representative of the association, but it considers that its members are equally entitled to representation with the seamen. The secretary of the Marine Engineers' Institute gave a similar expression of opinion. The institute also made representations that Mr. Hislop should be sent Home as their representative, and now maintain that they have been ignored. THE PREMIER'S STATEMENT. On communicating with the Premier this afternoon Sir Joseph Ward informed our reporter that it would not be possible to increase New Zealand's representation on the commission. It was not that the Government did not wish to see the certificated branch of the eervice directly represented by one of themselves, but Cabinet had a duty to perform to the Home Government. The parties principally concerned in the deliberations of the conference outside of the respective Governments were the bhip-ownere and the &eumen.

A hotelkeeper at Matawhero, Poverty Bay, has been fined 10s and costs for refusing to supply a meal and some horsefeed to the Croun Lands Ranger of Gisborne. In the ninth round of the Masterton Bowling Tournament Petone (23) beat Victoria (17). The telegram published in. yesterday's issue inadvertently reversed tha positions. i Mr. Harry X. Holmes, general secretary of the Wellington Young Men' 3 Christian Association, who is touring in the United States of America, was at Portland early in December, where he delivered, before the local branch of the V.M.C.A., a lecture on the political and economic conditions of New Zealand. The matron of the District Hospital acknowledges with thanks the following timely gifts : — Magazines, from Cecil and Edie Flockton, Mesdnmes Fitchett, Johnson, M'Arthur, T. E. Young, Lingard, Cooper (Lower Hutt), and Lady Ward ; magazines and boots, from Mrs. Miles ; old linen from 29, Moir-street; toys for children's ward from the Northland and the Wadestown Sunday schools ; flowers from Lady Plunket. Clyde, in the centre of Otago, was the 'hottest station in New Zealand at 9 o'clock this morning. There the sun blazed in still air with a fierceness which sent the mercury up to 84 in tho shade. The Ijluff maintained its reputation for coolness with a modest 56 degrees, but other places were much warmer. Yesterday's promise of rain in Wellington was only a mockery after all. Tho change ot wind was accompanied by a few drops of water, but early in the evening the northerly of old beat back the light southerly, and the sky was cleared, and the way was open for another scorching day. At 9 a.m. to-day tha shade reading was 74 desroos, wlici. improved to 78 by noon. Then the southerly returned to the attack and asserted a mastery which induced a welcome cooling. Captain Edwin's forecast to-day does not point to any. remarkable chanacin the present amditio?**