TRAWLER GOES TO SEA.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 192, 14 August 1931, Page 2

TRAWLER GOES TO SEA.

Many Weeks’ Dispute Over Rates of Pay. (Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, August 14. The trawler Futurist has pulled out from Queen’s Wharf and steamed out to Cook Strait, after being absent from the fishing-grounds for some weeks owing to the dispute between the owners (New Zealand Fisheries, Ltd.) and the Seamen’s Union, regarding the rates of pay for deck hands for Sunday work. Few were aware that the trawler was to leave, although the fact that she was seen to be getting up steam on Saturday morning gave rise to the view on the waterfront that she would not lie idle much longer. On the first of this month the Futurist’s trawling companion, the Nora Niven, was taken round to Evans Bay, and is still at anchor there.

Although the Futurist went to sea, it does not mean that the dispute which caused her temporarily to be withdrawn from service has been settled. An official of the Federated Seamen’s Union of New Zealand said that an agreement had not been reached and that no seamen affiliated to the union were on the vessel.

Although Wellington people have continued to get their fish regularly, the trawling dispute has been going on for a considerable time. The owners of the trawlers, however, have been obtaining their supplies from the fishermen working from the various bays around the harbour entrance. It is understood that the owners have met with obstruction tactics on attempting to have fish brought from the South Island.