THE ARBITRATION COURT

Evening Star, Issue 11607, 18 June 1902, Page 4

THE ARBITRATION COURT

The Court sat at 10.30 tM»y, M* Jttjs£ee Cooper presiding, KE DANIEL BAQLEY, DECEASED. Application by Public Trustee for instructions as to distribution of award of £3OB 14s lOd hi estate of Daniel Bagley, of South Dunedin. The claimants were thie widow and children. Mr D- D. Maodoqald appeared for thi dependents and Mr J. F. M. Fraser for the Publlo Trustee. Aftui- argument the Court decided that the amount should be handed over to the Public Trustee, with instructions to hold and subm.t some seherqe whereby the money could be satisfactorily distributed amongst dupL-ndenth. Judge Cooper remarked that wi.h tha Grinding of the money over to the Public Trustee tha Crown responsibility' oeasod. There were some cases in which, such as the present, the ordinary course of allotting two-thirds to the widow and tha balance to other dependents eouM not be satisfactorily followed. SEA-MEN'S DISPUTE. in this dispute Mr W. Belcher stated that an arrangement had been qqqio to between the union and the company thai the documents should go before the Court W submitted for what they were worth, Referring to the dispute, he said it wa* * double -barrelled ono, and he watt at a lofts to know why the company had referred it to the Court. Ho did not know whefcbtf* he would be allowed to refer to WiytWflir that had taken place in Auckland WW Wellington or elsewhere in connection, with th* hearing of the dispute. Judge Cooper: I think you will be quite iu order. Your reply will practically b* for the whole colony. Mr Belcher; The first question, of importance is that of wages. Some specuj&tiTe evidence had been given by the other fide ai; io the financial position of shipowners, and the effect it would have upon them if the demands pf the men were graated, but as against the evidence thu» submitted ii» would point out that the Northern Coojpany had been paying 7 per cent-, mi W«« abo in a position to send Home for new boats. In 1897 it had been mi ttwt if the seamen's claims were granted )t Would mm the Northern Companies. From what lie had stated it would be see* *bat that fear had not been borne out. Coming \» Wellington, it was evident the small shipowners there did not mak-c any defence because they had decided to shelter behind the Union Company. Coming further south* he failed to fjud any argument adduced to show why what the. men asked for should not be granted. As regarded the UnioP Company it would be seen that that company would be caked upon to pay the lion's share of the increase, and Mr Mills had told them it would cost his company £4,000 extra per annum. Hqw, that W8? ucit a largo amount, when the magnitude of the company was consideredThe annual turn-over of tJw eOTO" iK.nv, considering their magnitude and the JamJicationa of their trade, could BQt fee less than £200,000 per annum, and «4,IWU was u 5m..1l sum Iq Oi-ance in go large * foucem. li could easUy be ?«▼♦«* lor bv a slight increase 4n faies, freights, cr other ways, so that it would. not be felt The company had not submiUed to. the Court the great economies that ha* W e » practised since 1694. The company had considerably reduced the number W «*» men since that year. Some fci»ti< tbat Wmerly carried sixteen mpp now op.y carried nine, and the result of these ecoponuea w*« ihat the profits arising were revested m new s-hips. Their trade was increasing eaorimmslv thiou.hout Austral.s.a WW tne Island. The company practical «W.-cro'K-d ihe whole shipping trade of this colonv without any competition whatever, :>,< tb'ev van in conjunction With the ttua-dart-Parker boats. Refennpe had P?en ntiule io a few boats that brought,a few car«oes of coal to the colony, but m this matter thu Seamen's Unon had protected the company, as any competitor was compelled to carry ihe same number of men as they did. The Union Company could not expect to control this trade for all time, **<! competition must come a'ong sooner or later, but when that competition came along it would have to comp te on equal, conditions. As compared with Australia, the Union Company were in clover, as on the other side shipowners had to compete with ovei-ocean pa.atiul steamers that were i» more faxorable conditions. The Federal Parliament, lie understood, in order to protect the Austraian shipowners from this competition, intended to introduce similar legislation to that of New Zealand, 8&J of seamen there would be increased to £lO per month. Men in the employ of the Huddart-Parker Company receirir,;> thai wage. 'Hie only possible way m which the Union Company coud b?- adversely affrcted wou'.d be by the Fed«*al tari.il, but it would be obs-rvtd that in most of the colonies the tariff remained W it was former'y. Any alt-_ration of the tariff could, however, only bo temporary, and sooner or later the Austral ans would require to coma to New Zca and for what :hey wanted. Arbitration and eoaciliatjon had been parsed in New South Wales, and it would alfo come before the Federal Parliament. There had not been one argument advanced which proved that the incroaM asked for should not be granted. The company said that it would cost £4,000 extra if tiro 6d an hour ovtrtime was granted, but he contended that the re>u't would te that less overtime would be worked. That had been the experience of the past, end more work would be done in ordinary hours. Id was not fair that shoremen thould get 2s per hour overtime and seamen only Is 6di The company h'<*d not given tlr amount of overtime worked, or upon wlrt they baeed their estimate, Mr Holdsworth: The annual amount baa been supplied to the Court. Mr Belcher: I have not gpen it. Cot* tinning: As an argument in their favor, U« would mention that when the company uad absolute power they paid Is 6d per how overtime. He saw no reason why ordinary seamen should not be piid the aame rate* for overtime as pole seimen. It was not the ease that they couM not do the same work as able seamen. The matter of meal boars whs raised so that the men could "ft their meals at reafonable hours. The question of giving the men tha option of woiHng overtime or not wpw other labor was available wa* only r*a*>n* able, as men who were working Jong hours r;t sea should not be compelled to work on shore also. He knew of oases where men v oiked eighteen hours out of the twefltjv four, and if the public 'knew the bOUW We' men worked they would demand redress. Home of the owners were so callous tbey. d'd not care if the men fell down from exhaustion. While he admitted that in some cases firemen were neeessajy to keep up steam in certain ports, it was not- necessary in all ports, and they were often emp'oyed at other work'for which there w«w no need. He admitted that in this m»tt«r, since the attention of the oompapy had been called to the Waihora case, there had not been so -much to complain of. But St was within his knowledge that inewrig were being made upon that boat u to Ml mm who had given information; on tike «■*-

ter, with tHe object of making it uncomfortable for him. Mr Beloher then referred at length to the subject of ".watch and waiob, which ho said waa quite unnecessary jn a port like WeLington except in exceptional cases, and he strongly objected to the morning w*teh below. Men after doing eight hours' work in port wore called upon when a vessel went to sea to. do tour bxwrV watch on board, making a twelve bowi* day, and he said they were entitled to something extra for that. The company had voluntarily given some reaef in this matter, and the »«» «*ked «<> r a little more. A of the seven-bell system would give some relief. At present they were kept lour hours on and four hours oil, which interfered considerably wich the men's rest. This could be obviated by a little rearrangement. Hq a.so condemned the six-hours' watch, which also interfered with the men's rest. The bulk oi tne vessels of the company carried three men or more, and by the addition of an extra man the rearrangement that he suggested could be satisfactorily made. Ihree firemen were not sufficient for a steamer like the Wuikare. The company had made a little concession in this nutter, and had given the men 451 more, but more work had been put upon them. Most of the extra time worked was on the ocean, where the men worked twelve hours. What he compla.ned ot was that a vessel carried live highly-paid engineers and a very Lroited number oi men. That seemed to him an anomaly. He thought the company would have no diilicuity ui arranging that the men should only work eight hours where it was potable. It was only natural and reasonable for Union oihctrs to give the ovidenoa that they had done, ■hw he ki.ew some of them who had been oeJore the mast, and if they were there agaau they would express (Liferent opinions. Ihe anchor watch was a>so 'uuneoesiary, ar.d broke the men's rest consiuerao.y, and he strongly advocated th.it o. night watchman be appointed. He did not agree with the statement that more vigilante .was necessary on the anchor waich iliau ou other watches, because if a man was not worn out, and was a good man, he would be vigilant en any waicu. iSuiue exception had been taken to the citra pay for Suudays and holidays, but as tnu-ifc of tho men would not Iv able to get the?« holidays, the coat to the company would not hi so great as represented. Allowing foi the who.e of their men io be paid extra ea-jh for work ou day.*, it would not amount to .note than £3,609. With regard to the meal hours, he would not agree that all the men could not get their meals at the same time. The officers did so. The argument about a man lading ovtrboard was threadbare; it was not likely that a man would fad over at that hour any more than at any other hour. When the officers went to their meals there was only one officer left on duty, and the.-e would be as much difficulty in the can 1 of a man fal.ing overboard with the otfhe-rs away as if the men were away. When it suited the master's convenience, all the men could get their meals at«the same time, so as to bo ready to take up extra work in port. They mi,ht try this ,'n the case of easting vessels, and also of intercolonial vessels while trading on the coast. Ho concluded by a lengthy reference to preference of employment for unionists. He could not understand why .shipowners took such exception to this. " It did not cost them anything extra. It would be the -'rohy of fate if the Seamen's Union were not granted this privilege. They did not ask lhat a limited meaning should be attached to this provision, and it could be made to include members of the Wellington Union, which, so far as the Federated Seamen were concerned, was not recognised. If this were. not granted the irony of the position would be this: the Federated Seamen had brought about a maritime strike; if there had been no Seamen's Union there would have been no maritime strike, and if there had been no maritime strike there would have been no pro/ressive Labor legislation. He thanked the Court for the ptience they had exercised, and the consideration that had bmi shown to him in conducting the cane for the men. . Mr Holdsworth (representing the Union Company) and Mr Keith Ramsay also thanked* the Court for the consideration shown and patience exercised. The Court deferred judgment, and expressed the intention of going through 'he great mass of evidence during the remainder of this week. RE HEWITT l DECEASED). This was an application under the Workers' Compensation Act by 'he widow of Wi)l ; am Hewitt and her eh ldren tor compensation, from the Union Ste<m Ship Company for th? death of the sad W Ilium Hewitt. Mr So'orcon appeared for he claimants and Mr Holmes for the respondents. . Mr Solomon said that this was a friendly dispute. Some months a o the deceased fell down a hold wh'le in the employ of the company, and died from the injuri s he received. " Application was made on behalf of the dependents of the deceased, and it had 1-een agreed upon bstween the parties that the sum of £285 should b' tie comp-n ation. Th? object in comins before the Court was that (be Court sho"lrl make such order as they dcemfd des rab'e un ! er sect on 2 of the Conditions attached to the Act. The deceased had left behind him a widow and five children, one of whom was a posthumous child, for whom the Court would have to make provision. Mr Solomon suggested tiat two-thirds of tie corpus should be allocated for the benefit of the children, and placed in tho hands) of the Public Trustee for administration as he deemed necessary for their benefit. The question for the Court to decide was how the money was to be divided, iind to state whose d:snb.arge would relieve the company of responsibility in the case of the children. His Honor said that the Court would order that one-third of th j eo r pus be pud to the widow for her separate use, and the remainder would be placed in the hands of the Public Trustee for adm'n'stra ion on behalf of the children, inelud'ng the posthumous child, and the Truster's ('ischarge would be legally sufficien*. The costs of the proceeding would be deducte.l from the corpus. The Court then adjourned til! Tues lay next.

THROUGH TRAINB.-PASSENUERB THIS DAY. tbom r7nii c TCFrr*rTf yr.R this sooth Mr Borbfook, Mr C. J. Wetteney. Mr A J. Styers, Mis? Sinclair, Mr F. A. Hornibrook. I'ltOM TUP, SOTTTTT FOR IITiXKnTV. Mi< B M. Huchea, Mr F. G. Hobbs, Mr \V W. Mitchell Air W. Tvric, Mr Walter Gillies, Mr G. Wh Mr A. C TW|*. Mis Cameron, Mr* Dck'on, Mrs F. C"nvrnn, Mr J. H. Mr- •] M'TVipi'd, Alias Freeman, Miss Fear, Mr W. Gould. • "■ v »i"*r.i> " r< r tiik 'i i-tii Mr H CuY'VU, Mr T) M. S-'peddin?. Mr E. F Back, Mr T. MacO bbon. Mr Al'r*d BiWev. Mr C G WiVo-i. Mr J. .Vian, Mr J. P. BnHYr. Mrs Ktivens. Mr It S. M'Gowan, Mr n-<d Mrs J Af. CWbv M. s H. Crow, Mr F» Knew«tnhb. Mr T. Thomson, Mr J. Vtken, M'ss 0 Potts. «i" if««p'v vpn tttp: north. Mr H. Double, Mrs Jnmes. In the Arbitration Court this afternoon Mr So'omon asked whether the. Court would allow a claimant who wa.s likely to die at any time, having aneurysm of the heart, to bo examined by tho Court before hi? case eajne on. He was the only person who was able to flive fin account of Mie cmimwUnces, and it would be important to have bis evidence taken at once in cafe of accident. His Honor ?aid that in such vase the Court would order th« examination of the witness at once, and even if the apr)l : ca« tion were opposed they wou'd proh'h'y grant tbe order, as there wa« no re-ison why a claimant shonld be handicapped by such an evenc as death where it could he avoided. The Arbitration Court this afternoon adjourned till next Tuesday, intendinr to utilise the balance of the week in considering the mass of evidence in the sc.-nnen's dispute. The Court proceed to Christchurcb, where they have to hear four cases, and then return here. "It is such an unusual thing for an insolvent to pay twenty s'uillin.'s in the pound that I will g ; ve a certificate on embossed paper, with go'd edges, if you can prove in a proper manner that all the creditors have received this amount."— ,Tud<ro MolenwQrth to an insolvent in the Melbourne Insolvency Cpurt a few d^ys <fO.