MORE PAY WANTED.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1355, 5 February 1912, Page 4

MORE PAY WANTED.

-e HARBOUR BOARD MEN THIS TIME. January 1012 was a record month at lie port of Wellington in respect of net tannage and number of* vessels which entered and left the port. No fewer than G5 vessels passed in and out last month, their net registered tonnage being 251,11)8 tons. There were fiO steamers and five siijers. The nearest approach to these figures was during the month of February, 1911, when 58 vessels, comprising 53 steamers and 5 suiilers, representing 221,472 net tons entered and left theport. This shows an increase of 20,038 tons. While discussing those • facts with a Harbour Board official on Saturday, a. reporter elicited the information that it was thought that members of tho Wellington Harbour pilot staff (not the pilots themselves, but their assistants) should receive a rise in wages. "We look at it in this light," said the informant. "The men on the wharf, who work these vessels, have beeu receiving a rise in wages from time to lime, and we maintain that the price of living has gone up iu consequence, but our wages have remained tliv same for years past. For instance, we get 10s. a day, and our day is practically from daylight till dark. Then the night staff comes on, and they work from G p.m. until G a.m. Wo all work 3G5 davs in the year, Saturdays and Sundays included. In comparison with our case, the waterside workers and other people are much better off, and we arc strongly of tho opinion that an increase in wages should bo granted to us, especially when the increase of shopping at tho port is taken into consideration."