COASTAL SHIPPING DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1248, 4 October 1911, Page 2

COASTAL SHIPPING DISPUTE.

POSSIBILITY OF SETTLEMENT. MASTERS MAY BE CALLED OUT. There were practically no new develop incuts yesterday in tho coastal shipping dispute. It is now generally admitted tint all the mates oil (ho small ships, with theoxeeption of a few who aro not members of the guild, will come ashore in the course of a day or two uukss tho trouble is ended by an agreement lxv. tween the parties in the meantime. A few extra trips have been mado by officers under notice, but this has been with tho consent of the guild. Two steamers only, up to tho present, have gone away * from i»rt with mates not members o£ the guild, who were engaged to replace those who had been paid off. Tho Ripple left yesterday with her own officers, uy an arrangement which holds for one trip only. It. is understood that no such. similar arrangements will be mado in future. It is reportwl that tho Breeze (Canterbury Steamship Company) is held up at Westport, owing to the resignation of tho mate, and that all the Anchor boata will be held up at Nelson. The rumour, reported yesterday, that the guild will call the masters out if the shipowners meet with any success in filling (ho berths of the mates who have resigned, is confirmed. Nothing has been done yet, but the question is being freely discussed, and if such a step proves necessary in the interests of tho mates there seems to be little doubt that, tho masters will be called out. The chairman of tho Shipowners' federation, Mr. R. C. Ecrnier, denies the statement that overtures have boen mado ' i'o masters whose ships have been tied up to go to sea as mates on masters' pay. For the first time since the commencement of the dispute there were reports yesterday of prospoclS of a settlement. 'The owners have been holding meetings every morning and afternoon about the matter, but' there have been few formal meetings of the guild, the members of which are not easy to reach. After a meeting of the Shipowners' Federation yesterday morning n letter was sent to the secretary of the guild suggesting that Hie terms of the officers' demands should 1m committed to writing nnd submitted to the owners. The guild secretary could not, however, call a meeting for the afternoon, as lie was requested to do, nnd nothing was done. More may be heard of tin: uegoliations to-dav. As tho owners have stated several times already that they will abide by the award, and that they will not agree to modification of any maierial clauses of it, and as the oflicora have stated that nothing short of a ma- ; terial alteration in tho award will satisfy them, there does not scorn (o be a very bright prospect of a settlement just yet. If there is no settlement, it is understood ' that the owners will lay up their ships and pay off tho crews.