THE SEA COOK.

Evening Star, Issue 12874, 25 July 1906, Page 8

THE SEA COOK.

Attention is very properly being called lo the amelioration of tho lot of the seaman, and what New Zealand has done in this direction has already been the subject of a good (leal of comment. It is not too much to claim that the very moderate reforms that are now proposed by the Bill before tho English .House of Commons are a feeble reflex of the more comprehensive, and, from the English point of view, of the revolutionary, Shipping Act which is now the law of the land in this colony.

By a curious omission in the New Zealand Act the sea cook has been entirely neglected. He is, in fact, left out of the manning schedule altogether. It is quite legal for any ship, great or small, to go to sea from any port in the colony without a cook. _ This seems almost inconceivable, bat it is a sober .fact. What this often means to the seafarer will be explained. An able seaman, or fireman, or greaser must have legal qualification of service under the colony’s law, a qualification of previous service in an inferior capacity, ere he can earn the wages or fill the position. But anyone can be a cook, and, if owner or master please, no cook need be appointed, but anyone can try his hand, and the result can be imagined. ■.Fancy a ship’s crew, employed in most laborious toil, going below in their dinner hour to find that, owing to incapacity and parsimony combined, good food has been ruined, and that their an-oetites, sharpened by sea air and toilsome labor, must be appeased by the perhaps virgin attempt of some inclinable would-be chef. Imagine the effect that a continuity of this sort of thing must have after protracted and arduous toil, and then cease not to marvel that, on reaching shore, discontent finds its outlet in the constant bursts of debauchery and neglect of duty which the annals of any of the-seaports will abundantly furnish. Curiously, this is one of the subjects it is pronosed_ to deal with iu the new English Shipping Act. It is proposed that before a man can shin as cook he must have hud one month’s previous expel lence. It would be well were the matter dealt with during the next session of Parliament, the rating of cook to be defined as being denendent on at least three months’ previous experience, a.iid it should be made an offence at law to go to sea without a dulv qualified cook, and also an offence against discipline for a ship s cook to serve the meals to the crew in other than an efficient manner. Less would then bo heard of the old saying that “what is good enough for the dog is good enough for Jack.”—‘ Lyttelton Times.’