MARINERS' STRONG PROTEST AGAINST REMOVAL OF HARBOURMASTER

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 157, 13 June 1931, Page 5

MARINERS' STRONG PROTEST AGAINST REMOVAL OF HARBOURMASTER

CHANGE AT HOKIANGA , "NO CONSIDERATION OF ECONOMY CAN JUSTIFY ACTION" 'AUCKLAND, June 12. Criticism of a proposal to remove the harbourmaster and abolish signalling services at Hokianga has been made by various firms and associations interested. Captain B. Bui*;, secretary of the Auckland Merchant Service Guild, to-day sent the following telegram to the Minister of Marine: "Auckland Merchant Service Guild makes emphatic protest against withdrawal of harbourmaster at. Hokianga. The Hokianga bar is considered by masters to be the most dangerous in New Zealand, and requires constant supervision by a competent man, in order to be negotiated with any confidence. No consideration of economy can justify Ihe action, which may result in the sacrificing of seamen's lives. Your Government will be held responsible lor any disaster which may occur."

"The official who ordered that should be sentenced to cross Hokianga bar twice a Week for the rest o£ his life," was the comment of Mr. T. F. Anderson, secretary of the Seamen's Union. He also sent a wire to the Minister of Marine in the same strain as that of the Merchant Service Guild. It reads: "You cannot expect to escape personal responsibility if a disaster occurs on the notoriously dangerous Hokianga bar through the discontinuation of an essential signal service. Such economy amounts to juggling with seamen's lives."