STUCK UP.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 536, 17 June 1909, Page 9

STUCK UP.

INDRAVELLI WITHOUT A CREW

£4 10s. PER MONTH REFUSED. The Indravelli, which arrived from Vancouver, via Suva and Auckland on Tuesday, is timed to leave for Lyttelton and Dunedin at noon to-day, lint at a late hour yesterday evening Cant. Pilcher was doubtful whether ho would bo able to got away at the hour | mentioned. There was then'a-little rift which might possibly keep the Indravelii's engines mute for an extra hour or so. Briefly, the Indravelli is without a crow. During tho time she was engaged in tho Auckland-Vancouver run her seamen were paid the rate of wages obtaining on coastal steamers, though, as a matter of fact, there was no obligation in this direction. Yesterday tho crow signed off, and Capt. Pilcher, who requires a crew for tho trip to Manila, offered, applicants £4 10s. a month and a re- ■ turn passage to Australia or New Zealand as they desired. At first there appeared to bo quite a number of seamen willing to undertake the trip, but Mr. W. T. Young, secretary of tho Wei-1 lington section of tho Australasian Federated Seamen's Industrial Union of Workers, camo on tho scene With the result that the men demanded "coastal" rate of wages—i' 7 a month—and a return passage, wage6_ to continue until the men landed back in New Zealand or Australia. This request, however, was not acceded to. and a deadlock ensued. Tho secretary of tho Wellington section of the Australasian Federated Seamen's Industrial Union of Workers was waiting at the Government Shipping Office until the hour of closinn, evidently in tho bolief that tho terms would bo accepted. His vetsiou of the case, as gleaned by a Dominion representative, was that tho men were to bo mado a convenience of until the vessel could pick up a crew at Manila, that they objected to this, and that they wore not in a hurry to work, unless employed on their own torms. Captain I'llcher was naturally annoyed at tho stand taken by the men, because ho stated" that there were plenty who were willing to accept the work, until Mr. Young cam© along, and brought his influence to bear on them. Tho rate of pay ho was offering was bettor than that earned by seamen on"the West of England, or in London, and, as tho employment was on a largo liner, ho thought that he had struck a happy mediuil between tho. coastal rate of wages in the Dominion, and tho rato provided by the British Board of Trade, Altogether, ho required 27 men, three greasers, six firemen, sis trimmfers, eight ablo seamen, a boatswain, a lamptrimmer, a donkeyman, and a storekeeper. Here was_ Work offering tor Unemployed seafaring men, lind, perhaps, by the timo they returned to the Dominion, trade would have brightened, and there Would bo plenty of employment. Ho had Heard that there were a large number of linoinployed in Wellington, and ho knew that it was so. He had also lieard that tho. unemployed wero anxions to get work, irafc he could not see that. Lie was of ppin' ion that, they merely wished to bo members df the Australasian Federated Seamen's Industrial Union, of Workers.