THE SHIPPING ACT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18746, 27 December 1922, Page 5

THE SHIPPING ACT

MR'YOUNG'S ALLEGATIONS. - : (Per United Press Association.) ' WELLINGTON, December 26. - Mr W. T. Young, secretary of the Sea< men’s Federation, replying to the Hon. G. J. Anderson’s comment on the warning to travellers’ pamphlet, in the course of a long statement, says .that the Minister failed’ to explain the sections of the Act actually' suspended by him, because “the intended deception compelled him to refrain from straightforwardly informing the public” that his act in suspending, .sections 51, 52, 53, and 64 was for the express purpose of permitting ships to put to sea with unqualified and. distinctly incompetent crews; ■ . • ' Referring to the manning of, the Mara-c roa on- November 14; he declares that she).’ was manned with 95 per cent, of unquali- 1 fled and incompetent men, who were mostly inexperienced youths recruited by force from; tlio works of the'Union Company at Evans' Bay and elsewhere, and some from the We!- - lington. office,, the only competents bemg--two or three wharf foremen of the company. With this crew she was permitted' to carrv 703 passengers without additional 1 - 1 lifeboats, although the passengers’ liceiisa • only permits 350. . , .-r Mr Young states that the Minister s statement leaves the public with the impression; that the free labour now employed is quailtied as competent. ° i : . I have to give the inferred pronouncement of the Minister a very emphatio contradiction, and to declare, in the m-> terosts of those using the ships for transit purposes, that 80 per cent, of the ,freo labour is unqualified, incompetent, and incapable of launching or handling a boat or raft in time of disaster or at any other time. Mr Young also states that it has come to his knowledge that persons undergoing imprisonment for offences and undesirable immigrants have been purposely released from gaol to fill jobs on beard ships. ■ In conclusion he says : 4 '.The Seamen a Federation takes the full responsibility for the printing and distribution of the leafieo the Minister takes exception to, and all 1 have to do in tho name of honest men 38: ‘to toll the miblio that its comments ore ; gospel fact, and at the same time challenge’; the Minister to prove the contrary.’ '