A MARE’S NEST.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11334, 30 July 1897, Page 5

A MARE’S NEST.

The House of Commons, through the medium of Colonel Hill, the member for Bristol, has discovered a mare’s nest iu connection with the Hew Zealand Shipping and Seamen’s Act. On such a subject, Colonel Hill speaks as one having authority, for he happens to bo the President of the Chamber of Shipping, but he is, nevertheless, ablindleader of the blind. Bq complains that the Act compels

British ship-owners to pay local wages in despite of the conditions of contracts that have been entered into in England. If Colonel Hill is rightly reported, the statute on which he grounds his complaint must have been specially evolved from his own inner consciousness. The law at present in force on the subject in Hew Zealand assuredly is not as be describes it; but is, as the Secretary of State for the Colonies, inreplying to the member for Bristol, sagely suggested it should be, strictly limited to colonial vessels. The Shipping and Seamen’s Act Amendment Act, 1896, specially exempts ship-owners trading with, but not trading in, the colony from paying current colonial wages. Colonel Hill has, therefore, no ground for his complaint, and the arrangement suggested: by Mr Chamberlain is already in force on our StatuteBook. The Agent-General for the colony has, we are glad to notice as we write, promptly enlightened the darkness of these gentlemen, and of those whom they guide in the Imperial Parliament. In his reference to the subject, Mr Chamberlain takes occasion to suppose that the colonies are aware of the desirableness of having shipping legislation uniform throughout the Empire, and the supposition is right. But in so far as New Zealand is concerned no amendment of the law would he accepted if it entailed any withdrawal of the justice that has been extended to the seamen of the colony. If uniformity is to be obtained at all, it must be obtained by the Mother Country moving forward to the standard of the colonies.