AN IDLE SHIR

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 118, 22 May 1925, Page 8

AN IDLE SHIR

MANUKA'S CREW PAID OFF

FOOD QUESTION NOT SETTLED.

Efforts to settle the dispute - which arose on the intercolonial steamer Manuka on the question of the food served to the crew have proved abortive, and the Union Company has decided to pay off the crew and lay the vessel up at Wellington. Trouble has been occurring on the Manuka- for some time, and it is stated the ringleader of the malcontents is a member of the 1.W.W., who has been leading the men in making demands upon the master of the ship and the Union Company for improvements in the quality and variety of the food supplied to the stokehold and deck crews. It is also stated that small bills were posted in various parts of the Manuka, their purport being to incite members of the crew to adopt go-slow tactics unless their demands were conceded. The demands of the men were made at such times that it was deemed advisable on the part of the master to make the concessions asked for. In Wellington, on the present trip, it was decided by the Union Company to sign on_ fresh articles, and it was then that objections were raised by the Customs Department to the signing on 06 the man who had been acting as the crew's ringleader. The crew signed on on Wednesday afternoon, but when they discovered that the I.W.W. menu was not to be maintained thuy declined to sail, and left the ship a a body. Conferences were held between the men and the officials of the company, the secretary of the Seamen's Union (Mr. W..T. Young) also being present, but as both sides remained adamant the Union Company decided that the only course left open to them was to lay the Manuka up. This decision was put into effect to-day, when members of the crew were signed off. The crew's ringleader, who was on Australian articles, was to leave for Sydney by the Moeraki to-day, but after going on board, apparently with the intention of sailing, he landed again just a few minutes before the Moeraki left the wharf. There was'a fair crowd of his friends on the wharf, and some little time before the Moeraki was timed to_ leave the wharf these men joined with their leader in singing the union song, "Solidarity Forever." Apart from this, there was no disturbance. The secretary of the Seamen's Union (Mr. W. T. Young) told a "Post" reporter to-day that his union had taken no action in the matter, which had not been discussed by the executive. The statement appearing this morning to the effect that the union executive was not m sympathy with the men was without foundation. No action had been taken at all.