NAVIGATION COMMISSION

Otago Witness, Issue 2650, 28 December 1904, Page 19

NAVIGATION COMMISSION

SYDNEY, December 23. Before the Federal Navigation Commission, Captain Dakin, Marine Court Assessor, gave evidence that there was a general practice in New South Wales of undernianning and underpaying in regard to the officers engaged in the coastal and inter-State services. The owners cut down the payslieets to such an extent as to necessitate continuous stretches of duty of from 22 to 43 hours. He instanced three collisions that were the direct result; "of the officers on duty being, kept to work till they were physically incapable of keeping their eyes open. Officers lznsvr the value of organisation just as well t.s the owners and seamen. The difficulty was that the Shipowners' Federation boycotted all the officers who- identified them- - selves with an organisation. The worifing conditions of officers engaged in the .coastal and inter-State services were wretched. The secretary of the Steamship-owners' Federation declares that Dakin's- allegations are grossly exaggerated. The officers of inter-State ships are neither overworked nor underpaid. Their lot is far ahead of that of officers in the deep-sea trade. Most of the inter-State companies recruit their officers from oversea ships, and tihe vacancies are much sought after. Individual owners are similarly indignant, and say that, where occasionally the exigencies of trade compel the working of long hours, the officers are compensated by long spells of rest at th« terminal ports.