"SIGN, PLEASE!"

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 789, 12 April 1910, Page 6

"SIGN, PLEASE!"

INTERCOLONIAL STEAMEE TICKETS.

On Friday last the Union Steam Ship Company instituted a new system in connection with the issue of intercolonial tickots, whereby every person who takes out a passage to any port other than a New Zealand port has to sign the ticket before it is issued to him. This is quite different from the custom in the past. Hitherto tho person taking out a ticket merely had to supply his name and the cost of the passage, and the ticket was handed over.

The change has been brought about by a case in which the Union Company was sued for damages sustained by a passenger on tho Marama last year during boisterous weather, when a sum running into four figures was awarded the. plaintiff. Tho latter had, it was held in Australia, not subscribed to the conditions on the back of the ticket, which was therefore not a perfect contract between the .passenger on the one side and the Union Company on the other. By obtaining signatures, therefore, to every intercolonial ticket, the Union Company seeks to protect itself' from such actions by making each ticket a contract, subject in law to the conditions inscribed.

The innovation is a somewhat inconvenient one. to the public, and is the cause of a good deal of extra work and delay to the Union Company's staff, as was instanced during the rush hours on Friday last. Some careful people, on being asked to 6ign—a practice not usual in shipping circles abroad—want,- naturally, to know wha,t they are signing, and take some time in reading through the conditions set out on the back of the document. Others, on the contrary, take the signing as a matter of course, ind sign with alacrity. ~• ' As far as tho public is concerned, the difficulty presented by the adoption of tho signature system is\'awkward, as no one person can tako out a ticket for another, so that tho sick; ailing, and infirm who wish to travel to Australia cannot now be relieved of the duty of attending at the_ company's office, and, of course, a majority of those, when asked to sign for their tickets, will-want to read the conditions embodied in the ticket, which they' sign for on the ticket and butt. On inquiry it was ascertained that, so far, the Huddart-Parker Proprietary has not made any alteration in the method -=i issuins tickets for intercolonial tries.