UNEMPLOYED SEAMEN.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19160, 17 November 1927, Page 15

UNEMPLOYED SEAMEN.

, _ »—*--- j A GROWING LIST. [THE PBESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, November 16: The officials of the Seamen's Union report that there are no fewer than 150 seamen unemployed in Wellington. They state that within 24 hours they could man three vessels as big as'the Maheno without calling on any of the seamen temporarily employed on relief works and other jobs in the country near Wellington. This large number of unemployed seamen is attributed by the Union officials to the fact that ten of the Union Steam Ship Company's cargo steamers are laid up, and in addition their passenger steamers, Maheno and Moeraki, are also out of commission. The withdrawal of the cargo boats is partly due to the falling off of the carriage of coal from Newcastle to New Zealand owing to the increased use of New Zealand coal, a great quantity of which is now being rail borne through the Otira tunnel from the West Coast. The increased use of oil fuel by Home liners and New Zealand vessels has also meant a decrease in the demand for hunker coal.

Wheat importations have also dropped and, in general, there is an obvious reason for the laying up of the cargo steamers. Occasionally the ranks of the unemployed seamen are swelled by seamen off Home liners signing off on arrival at Wellington. Some of these big vessels carry passengers out from England and are required by legislation to carry extra seamen while doing so but, as thes© t ships leaive New Zealand for Home with cargo only, the services of the extra seamen are not required. The winter has severely taxed the resources of seamen in Wellington and the outlook for the summer, the Union officials s*y, is without any promise of marked improvement.