THE SHIPPING ACT.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13336, 30 January 1909, Page 8

THE SHIPPING ACT.

The case the master of the collier steamer Canopus yesterday at Lyttelton is another proof of the necessity for some amendment of tho Shipping and Seamen's Act. Captain Sillars was charged with failing to carry two trimmers as required by tho schedule for a vessel like the Canopus. .According to that schedule her crew should include three firemen, two trimmers, and two greasers, or seven in all. Owing, however, to tho requirements of the vessel's engines six firemen are carried and three greasers, or nine in all, the absence of trimmers being explained as due to the fact that the vessel's bunkers are self-trimming, except in unusual circumstances, when the necessary trimming can be done VV firemen. If trimmers wero carried there would be nothing for them to do for most of their time, since they could not be put to firing except in case of emergency, and .the six firemen now carried would therefore still be required. The law, however, takes no account of a vessel's requirements, all that it considers is her size, and if that; is such as to bring her into tho class of vessels for which two trimmers are usually needed, then she must carry two trimmers, whether they earn their wages or sleep in their bunks. The Canopus has been allowed to leave other New Zealand ports without trimmers, but some friend of that profession appears to have moved the Marine Department, and on the facts . tbe Bench had no alternative but to inflict a small fine. They added, however, an expression of opinion, with which most people will agree, that the

Act should be amended. It is only one of several incidents that have occurred to point that moral, but it env phasises the complaint of ship-owners that the New Zealand shipping regulations are in some respects harassing and 6tupid.