PUNISHING SEAMEN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1635, 31 December 1912, Page 3

PUNISHING SEAMEN.

HARSH TREATMENT ALLEGED.' Respecting a statement recently made by Mr. W. T. Young, secretary of the Seamen's- Union, to the' effect that seamen, and firemen were resenting the action of the Marine Department in barring men guilty of minor offences from signing on ships in cases where. they had already been punished by the ship they were last in,. that official' has written to the Minister for Marine (the. Hon. F. M.: 8., Fisher) directing attention to the way seamen are being-punished several'times for one offence under; the shipping laws of the Dominion. Mr. Young states that recently cases have come under • notice of .where seamen have committed some small offence within the* shipping laws, for which they, have been officially, logged by the master, compelled to forfeit a sum of money from their wages, given a certificate of discharge equal to a bad one, and on top of that the Marine. Department has enforced the provisions of Section 26 (if the. Amending Shipping Act of 1909, 'i and barred the men from signing in another ship • for one, two, three, and four weeks,' and thereby ' administering three distinct punishments for one offence. Mr.'Young'quotes a"number of cases and adds:—"The most, of those cases are failing to join, the ship, and for any one offence'at. will be seen that the punishment is: (1) Forfeiture of the whole or portion of wages;'(2) a 'decline to report' discharge,. which is regarded by all seamen as being equal to a bad one, and retards .a man from obtaining further employment; (3) barred by the Department for fourteen days or longer .period from following, his occupation, which is squal to imposing a fine of five or six pounds on the man involved.".