AN INTERESTING CASE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18974, 27 March 1924, Page 9

AN INTERESTING CASE

SYDNEY, March 25. The High Court of Australia has commenced the hearing of a claim by the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand against the Commonwealth Government for £25 10s. and £26 125., fees paid to the Government under protest. The action arose out of the discharge and engagement of a number of seamen for the steamer Niagra in 1922. When the vessel arrived at Sydney the engagements of certain seamen aboard had terminated, and the master of the Niagra, for the purpose of effecting discharges according to, the law, "attended before the port superintendent, and, having complied with all the requirements of the Merchant Shipping Act, requested the superintendent to allow the discharges to be effected in his presence. This he refused to do until the fees Required by the Navigation Act amounting to 2s. for each discharge, were paid. The master of the Niagara paid these under prptest, and the discharges were effected. The port superintendent then refused to allow the seamen to be engaged until a further fee of 2s. each was paid, and the master paid them also under protest. The questions now submitted the Court are whether, in tho tcircumstances, the provisions of the Navigation Act governed the discharges and whether the Act governed engagement'.