SHIPPING DEADLOCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18711, 17 May 1924, Page 9

SHIPPING DEADLOCK.

PORT' LYTTELTON DISPUTE.

ACTION AGAINST UNIONS.

• Australian and N.Z. Cable' Association. (Reed', 10. p.m.) SYDNEY, May 16.

The hearing has commenced of charges of alleged conspiracy against union officials, in connection with' the Port Lyttelton deadlock.

Captain Hollis, marine superintendent of the Commonwealth and Dominion Line, stated in evidence that he had received a message from the captain of the Port Lyttelton at Launceston stating that the crew had refused to take the vessel to sea unless they received a bonus of £20, as it was claimed the ship was unseaworthy. Witness later attended a'meeting of dock officials and members of the transport group at Cockatoo Island, and related the owners' side of the dispute in connection with the Port Lyttelton and Port Curtis.

•' At the meeting Mr. Heffron, speaking for the transport group, said he would not touch the ships until the men of the Port Curtis were released ana warrants against the men of the Port Lyttelton withdrawn.

Cross-examined, Captain Holhaf said .that after the Port Lyttelton went aground at Launceston in January, they put to sea in a vessel making 100 tons of water hourly, but he claimed the vessel was seaworthy. At the meeting at Cockatoo Island, witness asked Falkingham, the Seamen's Union representative, whether the men agreed to take the Port Lyttelton to sea for a bonus of £20. Falkingham replied by asking whether witness had not known cases of men taking " coffin ships " to sea for a considerable increase in pay. ( ' The manager of the Cockatoo Dock, Mr. Payne, staged that on February 26 he saw the two union officials, McDonald and Shearer. They told him that the Port Lyttelton had been declared black," and that no x work would be done. They said they spoke as delegates from their respective unions in the transport group.