MOVE ON!

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 January 1925, Page 5

MOVE ON!

SEAMEN WAIT FOR WORK

PECULIAR POSITION. IN SHIPPING DISPUTE. UY CABLE—VEESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. (Received Jan. 9, 11.40 a.m.) MELBOURNE, Jan. 9. Large numbers of seamen assembled at the Mercantile Marine Office seeking ■ employment. The shipowners decided to pick up men at four in the afternoon. After waiting all the morning and most of the afternoon the men left before that hour. It is stated that at 3 o’clock the thoroughfare was almost blocked by seamen. A constable appeared and ordered the men to' move on. The order was resented and the position explained to the constable, who consulted the Marine Office. The men were informed that the yard at the back of the office was available for their accommodation. However, when the masters of vessels requiring crews arrived the men had disappeared. The new development was brought about by the announcement of the Marine Engineers’ Institute that its members could not leave the ships to pick up men at the Marine Office. If its members were required to pick up labour on behalf of their ships the men would have to be brought to the ships. The dispute as far as Melbourne is concerned has now reached a stage when any day might see a settlement, or even a more hopeless situation created. PERTH. Jan. 9.

Wholesale produce merchants view with alarm the threatened cessation of inter-State shipping. They declare that if shipping should be entirely suspended there will be a famine in some lines within a few weeks. In normal times between £6OO and. £BOO worth of goods' come from eastern States monthly, consisting mainly of dairy produce afrd sugar.