THE SEAMAN'S WAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17145, 26 April 1919, Page 8

THE SEAMAN'S WAGES.

The distress in which the loss of the schooner Awanui has involved the dependants of her crew is another illustration of the hardships created by the existing laws of the sea. Under the New Zealand law, the seamen's agreement is terminated by wreck, and his wages cease when he leaves the ship. Thus the Awanui'B crew, wrecked in January and now stranded at Apia, will be brought to Auckland at the expense of the New Zealand Government, but they are unable to make any contribution towards the maintenance of their families. The case is by no means novel; it is merely typical of the operation of a custom which has come down from a harsh age, and since it is universally recognised as a condition of all contracts of service, the shipowner makes no alternative provision for this contingency, and his seamen do not ask it of him. As a result there has grown up throughout the world a vast and splendidly efficient organisation for the relief of shipwrecked mariners and their families, At the best this is a precarious insurance against the dangers of the sea, and a less reliable form of protection than the seaman is entitled to receive. He may not be discharged during the term of his agreement unless he is given a free passage to the port at which he was engaged,,

and this provision might be adapted to tho seaman whose service is terminated by disaster. Service in the southern seas is in this respect under a peculiar disadvantage. Distressed seamen in any part of the northern waters are not likely to be far removed from the opportunity of adequate employment, but wreck in the South Pacific may, and often has, cast crews upon lonely islands, whence relief is slow. It is manifestly inequitable that the seaman and his family should bear the full burden of this misfortune, and there would probably be little opposition from shipowners to a proposal to amend the law so far as would secure the seaman's wages until his earning power should be restored by return to New Zealand or at least to a port offering reasonable chances of employment. , Such a liability would press lightly if it were shared by all shipowners, and its clear definition enabled them to make the necessary safeguards against such an addition to the risks of marine loss. The. faithfulness of British seamen in the great crisis of the Empire has placed an obligation upon the nation to improve the conditions of seafaring life, and in this respect New Zealand may well give a load to the rest of the world.