COASTAL SHIPPING

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11296, 23 August 1922, Page 2

COASTAL SHIPPING

SEAMEN ANB FIREMEN SHIPOWNERS DESCRIBE POSITION AS “ACUTE.” LOWER FREIGHTS. The conditions of work and pay affecting seamen on small steamers plying in the east and west coastal services were further investigated by the Arbitration Court yesterday during the continued hearing of the seamen’s and firemen’s dispute. The court comprised His Honour Mr Justice Frazer (president), Mr W. Scott .(employers’ assessor), and Mr M. J. Reardon (employees’ assessor). Mr W. G. Smith and Mr T. O.'Bishop represented the shipping interests, and Mr W. T. Young conducted tho case for the New Zealand Federated Seamen’s Union. Kenneth McLeay, general manager of the Richardson Shipping Company, was further examined. Asked bj; Mr Young if the recent increase in the shipments of wool did not indicate a revival of trade, witness pointed out that the quantity of wool shipped was affected owing to the decrease in the number of sheep in tho Dominion. i Mr Young said he would show the court at a later stage that a donkeyman, the highest paid man on board ship, earned less than an ordinary brewery labourer, even allowing £3 per month in addition to his wages for keep, and not taking into account the bonus received by the brewery worker. Mr Bishop: There is more money in beer. - Mr Y©ung: Is there ? I know nothing about beer. EVIDENCE AS TO WORK AND WAGES. Robert Isaac Fletoher, master of the Richardson Company’s vessel Ruru, was questioned by Mr Bishop concerning several of the minor clauses in dispute. Replying to Mr Young, witness stated that the seamen and firemen had little rest in working small vessels on the coastal run. He expressed the opinion that the work performed in the hold was harder than surfing. Eldwin James Phillips, accountant to the Richardson Shipping Company, who prepared certain statements of seamen’s earnings handed into court by the manager of the company, said he could vouch that the figures he bad oompsled were accurate in every respect. Mr McLeay had asked him to prepare a statement of actual earnings on a typical voyage up the coast. The figures bad been made up from the men’s overtime sheets and th» commentaries had been taken from tho master’s log. Any discrepancies in the return were probably due to the fact that it had been compiled from those two different sources. Be oould have prepared the return in better form to avoid argument. He denied that certain favourable days had been selected with the object of making the return favourable to the company’s case. The statement showed only tho earnings of the men while they were on the articles. He admitted that, some of the information contained in the report had been compiled by other officials. Mr Young: Why did you not Show In separate oolumns the actual wages, the overtrffie payments, and the number of hours' overtime? Witness : Because I was asked ,to make a return of the total earnings. You had no instructions as to details?—None whatever. EFFECT OF “STOPWORK MEETINGS.” Michael E. Fitzgibbons, stevedore and shoremate for the same company at Napier, oalled by Mr Bishop, said he had! been mate of t..ree of the company’s steamers during the past seven years. If the proposed slopwork meetings were held on the same day' as the waterside workers’ meetings the company would be affected to some extent, hut not to the same extent as if the meetings were held on different days. The meetings would interfere with the sailings to Wairoa and other ports which had to be made according to tides. Cross-examined by Mir Young, witness said he saw no reason why the sailor should not discharge ashes. It was only a fair thing, he thought, for the men to give reasonable notice of their willingness or otherwise to work overtime. Mr Young maintained that the employers were seeking to place the onus of notification upon the workers. His Honour said the court would have to alter the expression “shore leave,” as a wrong interpretation Was likely to be placed upon it. - Mr Young asked the witness if he Was in favour of the proposed wages reductions. His Honour said the witness oould not be expected to know anything about the management of the company, and he need not answer the question. Mr Young: A magnificent way out of a difficult position. His Honour: It is not a fair thing to ask, Mr Young. John Benson, engineer of the s.s. Ruru, said that firemen worked! four hours’ overtime every day. Work performed at anchor was very much easier than work «t sea. He did not zee any harm _in the deckhand on watch discharging ashes. TRADING SLUMP ACUTE. William Rodgers, general manager of the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company, Ltd., said there had been a gradual falHng-off in the trading receipts of his company of late. Tho position was becoming so acute that the company was obliged to consider whether or not it should keep all its steamers running. Since the court bad opened he had been called to Nelson to a meeting of directors, ,at which it had been decided that the steamer Regulus should not be withdrawn at present, pending a report in three or four weeks’ time from the manager. Coal cargoes between Greymouth and New Plymouth had dwindled! very considerably and some vessels had been

running with half cargoes. The coal trade on the West Coast was very much upset, mainly on account of declining orders, and freights had had to be reduced in order to encourage business. Stopwork meetings interfered a igood deal with the working of the company’s vessels. The effect of tho seamen’s stopwork meetings had not so far been felt, as they took place on tho same day as tbe work was hold up through the watersiders’ meeting. Witness submitted to the court a statement of the earnings of men on lids company’s vessels between February 1 and July 31 last. Witness said he had been endeavouring to dissect from the total earnings shown the amounts of overtime inoluded, but he had! not completed his figures. In answer to Mr Young he said that his company had a monopoly of the passenger traffic between Wellington and Nelson.

Mr Young: Don’t you think it would be hotter if seamen’s wages were on a daily instead: of a weekly basis?—l can’t see any reason for it. Considering the state of trade I don’t think there should be any rise in pay. We have to encourage trade now, and to do that wo have to reduce freight rates. Tho fruit people in Nelson were anxious for us to lower the freight, and we have practically given them a promise to do so after tins question of wages has been settled by tho court. To His Honour: Hie company had hot really felt the hard times until last year. Bib Honour: I see; the company’s earnings wore up to the standard up to the end of the last financial year, and you did not get hit by the slump until June?—That is so. At this stage the court adjourned till to-day.