MAPOURIKA STILL IN TROUBLE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1632, 26 December 1912, Page 4

MAPOURIKA STILL IN TROUBLE.

: fr FIREMEN AGAIN CHANGED. There were rumours in town on Christmas Eve that ' the Union Company's Mapourika was likely to again be delayed by trouble with her firemen. As a 'matter of fact, the men who brought the ship into port would not take nor out again. In this connection, Mr. Young, secretary of the Seamen's Union, paid that from a firemen's point of view the Mapourika was a hard ship to work, and • he suggested that a way out of the difficulty would be- the engagement of a sixth man. This would provide four firomen and two trimmers. Another,suggestion was that these men bo engaged at ilO a month, and they would then provide two men on watch at a timeone firing and the other trimming coal. Mr. W. A. Kennedy, local manager of the Union ■ Company, stated' that the Mapourika bad been running for fourteen years, and was'no harder to work now than she was at first. He was not prepared to say anything more on the matter. ' •.

However, 1 the Mapourika managed to get'away about G p.m., firemen from other ships in port having been transferred to the vessel at the ordinary rates of pay. The Wanganui Steam Packet Company s coastal steamer Stormbird was not so fortunate as the Mapourika. This vessel was scheduled to leave Wellington for Wanganui on Christmas Eve. At her appointed sailing time, however, four senmen and a boy failed to put in an appearance, and the ship was delayed until yesterday. ' When her timo of departure came round again only two sentaen turned up. The local agents have now advertised the Stormbird to leave for Wanganui at G p.m. to-day. And that is how the matter stands at present.