HOLD-UP OF SHIPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18950, 23 February 1925, Page 8

HOLD-UP OF SHIPS.

DELAY CIF THE MARAMA. THE STOKEHOLD DESERTED. PRESENCE OF MOERAKI MEN. J [BY TELEGItAFH. —PP.ESS ASSOCIATION, 1 WELLINGTON. Sunday. ! Their notices having expired, thfc Marama's deck crew left the ship this morning, and as no stokehold or deckhands were available the vessel's sailing time fixed for noon, was put off till 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon. A number of the Marama's sailors belong to Auckland, and caught the mid-day express for home. The only employees on board are the en-! gineers' staff and the stewards, who ara not involved. Some 100 passengers also remain on board. The position, according to the men wh<i have left the ship, is narrowed down to one issue, that of the Moeraki's' non-union crew being carried only as passengers,. The men assert that the whole trouble started by utilising 14 of the Moeraki's crew in the stokehold. " Give us a proper agreement and we will go back now," was the declaration of a Marama man who had brought iiis bag kshore. His definition of a proper agreement was a firm understanding that the Moeraki men would go back to Sydney as passengers. " We don't object to that," added the sailor, " we want to get them out of this country." It is hoped by the company that a Ires labour crew will be secured. No further trouble is anticipated with the waterside* workers, but it is doubtful if the Moeraki will get away to-morrow. MOEBAKI AT DtTCTEDIff. SETTLEMENT BY FUMIGATION. [BV TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT, J DTJNEDIN, Sunday. There is every prospect that the deadlock in connection with the Moeraki will be overcome, as the latest information gives the dispute an entirely new aspect. A meeting of shipping employers was held on Saturday morning to discuss the position in regard to the Moeraki. -• the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. S. K, Sleigh, the local manager for the Union Steam Ship Company, said that a verbal promise that the men would accept employment when the nest call was mada had been given, but that there was a stipulation that the steamer should be fumigated before work was commenced. It had been inferred that the stipulation is made because there was a possibility of thero being something contagious about the Moeraki, there being much weight attached to the word "scab," as the vessel's non-unionist crew was termed. In any case fumigation would be in the interests of health, and only 24 hours would ba wasted in the operation. A fairly large number of waterside workers were in attendance-when another call was made for labour lo discharge the Moeraki at 7.45 a.m. on Saturday. Again not, one man volunteered his services. If the .Moeraki is fumigated to-day, and, the waterside workers fulfil their promise, a start. will in all probability be made on Tuesday morning. The local agents for the Commonwealth and Dominion Line and also for the Federal Line are well satisfied with the work carried out. on the Port Denison and Cornwall Port- Chalmers on Friday evening snd Saturday morning. Tha Port. Chalmers and Dunedin waterside workers wpm engaged in loading the Port Derision, and no hitch occurred to retard matters. The. Port Denison loaded 1500 bales of wool and 5000 freight carcases of lamb, the work being completed shortly after mid-day, when the vessel sailed for Bluff. The- Cornwall is having 2000 tons of English cargo discharged, and she took in a quantity of frozen mutton. In all the Cornwall will lift about 16.000 freight carcases of mutton. .