SHIPPING AGREEMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1912, Page 3

SHIPPING AGREEMENT.

SOME OF ITS EFFECTS. [BY TELEGRAPH— -SPECIAt TO THE POST.] AUCKLAND,. Thk Day. According to a statement made to a Star 'reporter" by the manager of the Northern Steamship Company (air. Hanson), who returned from "Wellington by the Main Trunk train on Saturday, after attending the conference, the effect of the .new shipping agreement- will be simply a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. " Ab a fact, he said that readjustments of rates in connection with passenger and ■ cargo traffic would have to take place, and that the increased cost' of working the steamers would have to come out of the public. , ,Th© ship-ping-companies were not making sufficient profits under existing conditions to continue running under th© rates wliich had been in force up to the present. V\Ve have to pay £1 per month more to the men/ ne explained. " That is the first of the three ■ crucial points- in the agreement. The others are that we shall have to pay a little higher overtimej and that w«' shall have to adhere to the ei^hfc hours' system. This- latter provision ' means a very considerable increase in the cost of running our vessels. The provisions for increased pay and more 'overtime come into operation on Ist March, and the eight hour day will come info force from l6t "July. Therefore during the ensuing month we shall have to go caief ully into the matter of freights, and so readjust them as- to pTOvide for additional revenue in proportion to the amount of the increase brought about by this new agreement." Questioned concerning the exemption which had been granted to the Northern Company's steamers ~ Gael, Kawau, Orewa, and" Kotiti, Mr. Ranson said he had with some difficulty held out for these. It had been provided that these vessels, while engaged in their present trades, or any vessel of the same character trading as aforesaid, in addition to or in substitution for the said vessels, shall be Jbound by all the terms 'of the present agreement, except that the hours j of labdur (at sea or m port) for, .the men employed . shall . be 56e < per week. It was necessary spme exception should have been made in the case of these small vessels.