REFRACTORY FIREMEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15604, 6 November 1912, Page 4

REFRACTORY FIREMEN.

Tin; somewhat laboured reply by Mr W. T. Young, secretary of the Seamen's Union in Wellington, to the allegations of drunkenness on the part of firemen on board tho ferry steamer Maori is of that categorical type of denial which frequently (ails io carry conviction. Mr Young lias lioen at pains to traverso 'somewhat closely certain of tho statements that have been mndo as to the effect which the insobriety of certain of tho firemen had ii|k)ii the running of the Maori, and, what with affirming this and having (teen " advised " 011 wine other jKiint, ho has produced a somewhat ingenious and plausible document. There is, however, when all is said, practically nothing in this which discounts the general correctness of ail that has bucn alleged. It is all very well to point out tlml of the ship's complement of firemen and trimmers so many aro most temperate and that, because certain men who did lapse from sobriety were not 011 duty when intoxicated, the vessel coidd not have been delayed for reasons originating in the stokehold. Upon the subject of tho sobriety of the firemen and trimmers 011 the Maori, the captain of that vessel is perhaps as well qualified to speak as Mr Young is, and it is very satisfactory to find him offering testimony that supports .Mr Young's up to ,1 certain iwint. "We have firemen 011 board," ho is reported to have sijid last week, " whoso work and conduct arc unexceptionable. Thev are sobeJ, industrious, well-behaved, rcspoctablc men, who give no trouble at all.'' But this in no way affects the gravity of the complaint concerning the manner in which others—even if they constitute, as it is to bo hoped tlicv do, hut a small minority—have performed »r neglected their duties. It is very interesting to read what Captain Aldwell had to say about the trip of the Maori on the night of the recent October gale to which the article in the Christchurch Press made special Tefcrence. "We ought,' 1 he says, "to have had eight sober, efficient men in the stokehold that night. There were three men short. And of the men 011 duty only two were actually sober." Willi reference to the excursion trip to Picton on Labour Day, Captain Aldwell said: "On the way over to Picton one man came down to go on relief duty in the stokehold. lie just lay down on the plates and did' nothing. Two were off w-.rk. and others were, I should say, 'muzzy.'" In the face of statements like these from the captain of tho vessel the secretary of the Seamen's Union has l>een rather rating his timo in producing a " refutation" of what he has evidently been pleased to consider allegations of purely journalistic concoc-, tion, especially when it is observed to what extent an admission of drunkenness on the part of the firemen is actually provided in his statement. If the Seamen's Union lias done what Mr Young claims it has done, to reduce drunkenness and desertion on the pnrt of its members, it would seem more laudable on its part to offer some expression of regret that episodes like those recently mentioned should

1)0 still occurring, and somo assuranco of its earnest desire to help to bring about a better sUito of things.