"PLEASANTER ON DECK"

Evening Post, Issue 59, 10 March 1924, Page 8

"PLEASANTER ON DECK"

One of the claims of the . Seamen's Union, which is being resisted by the ship-owners, in-dispute before the Arbitration Court, is a demand that in cases where a free passage'is granted to a seaman to return him to .his home port, he-shall be provided with' accommodation m a cabin. .Mr. W.'.'T. Youn"-' the seamen's representative; stated ?n the Court this morning that men had been asked to accept- any kind of accommodation, including the ". 'tween decks," where racehorses were'sometimes earned. The ship-owners he said wanted, to know whether the men desired saloon accommodation. Mr. B. L. Hammond : "You will be lucky if you get that." Mr. Young said they were not askinnlor it. Jhey merely asked for a provision in the award to guard against" the men being stowed away in any corner between the ship's decks. Mr. Smith said the men would be given open-berth accommodation. Honouv remarked that on a full ship ono might consider himself lucky to get a berth anywhere. There were drawbacks to the open berth. He recalled a trip made on a small vessel in the NorthAuckland district, when he 'had been obliged to share accommodation with Maoris, Austriaris, and' Chinese which were all-around him in the same cabin; "I will admit/ he said, "that it was pleasanter on deck."