CAPTAIN RUSSELL IN AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3746, 22 May 1899, Page 5

CAPTAIN RUSSELL IN AUCKLAND.

A DEPUTATION FROM ENGINEERS

PRESS ASSOCIATION. AUCKLAND, Saturday. Captain Russell was waited on at the Harbour Board offices to-day by a deputation representing the Auckland branch of the Australasian Marine Engineers, the Auckland branch of the Amalgamated Society of .Engineers and the Auckland Trades and Labour Council. • The deputation asked for the assistance of Captain Russell in an effort to have provision made by statute so that only certificated engineers could M in charge of oil engines. It had been stated that if the Amalgamated Society of Engineers were to consult their own interests they would leave this question alone, because when unskilled men took these engines to sea, the result waa to fill engineering shops with repairs, but the deputation urged that for the safety of the travelling public it was only right that certificated men should be placed in charge of these oil engines. Captain Russell, in reply, stated that he could not be expected- to give an answer straight off on a technical question of that kind, but the principle he went on in discussing shipping and seamen’s Bills was that the safety of the travelling public was a matter of first moment, and if it could be shown to him that the breakdown of an engine in charge of an Unskilled man was likely in any way to endanger life, his most weighty consideration would be given to the question. In any case, he agreed that anything that was required should be done under statute and not under Order-m-Council, which appeared to him to be an abomination altogether. If the question should come up in Parliament, it would receive his full consideration. Captain Bussell left by the Te Anau for Napier.