THE FOLLY OF THE FIREMEN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1641, 7 January 1913, Page 4

THE FOLLY OF THE FIREMEN.

... *-. —- The conduct of the firemen who ,re blocking the running of the ferry teamere to Lyttelton is so outrageius that if the Shipping Company, lossosses any judgment at all it will cake no further effort to conciliate he stupidly stubborn men who aro lausing so much public inconvenimce and 1653 on such petty and inrcasonable grounds. It will, initoad, go straight ahead with its efrorts to secure fresh hands, and nako its preparations to lay up any >r all of its vessels should, occasion •cquire. . It too often happens ih :ases of this kind that the real issue it Btake is obscured,, and the public, inconsequence, are not able to.conklcntly' form an opinion as to the nerits of the questions in dispute, ind the-party in, the wrong benefits, iccordingly. In the present instance, however, tho facts are so plain and so simple that there is w room for confusion or doubt. The iircmen on- the steamer,' Maori left the vessel and refused to return to it without the slightest cause so far as the 'steamer's owners- wero concerned. The-Shipping Company liad done nothing whatever to cause' the men offence, or do them injury. Ihe men themselves admit, and their officials endorse the statement, that they are refusing to work tho vessel simply because a newspaper reporter telegraphed an erroneous baragraph stating that the steamer Maori had not made the advertised New Year, tripfto Picton as,the firemen demanded 30s. each for the day.' This is the solo ground on which the firemen are acting. Their dignity was hurt apparently—though why ; this should do so; seeing that other firemen belonging' to the same union we're making exactly the : demand stated, is difficult to understand. These;; highlyiscnsitive seafayers demanded, as a salvo, to their injured feelings, that the writer of tho message objected to Bhould apologise He promptly, did so, arid also'explained the. cause of the error. Having secured this concession so easily, and having also brought the Shipping Company's officials and their own union' officials pleading to them 1 to work the ship, it was not unnatural perhaps that persons of this class should feel encouraged'to_ gd still further and make additional demands in the way ' of 7,apologies. Not content with making all and sundry bend the knee to the injured majesty of the; stokehole, 'they, were to bb made to grovel in the dirt or pay the penalty in the shape,of the idle ferry service, : with all its consequences. Wo '.are glad to note that up to the,present ,the company and the Pfess, Association, have refused to descend to the grovelling stage. •.'■'■., •'.•'■ ■, ■ ■'_.;' The conduct of a section of the firemen employed oh' vessels trading in New Zealand . waters has been scandalously, bad for some time past; and has been encouraged by .the weakness of the shipping companies. We mentioned this fact on a previous occasion,, and also the furthor fact.that great laxity has been shown in the granting of clean discharges where such were not warranted. Tho present intolerable State, of things should open the eyes of the .public to tho class of men the Bhipj' ? officers and engineers.have'.to deal with. It,should also make the shipping companies realise'the mistake they have made in foiling to support , their officers in the maintenance of .that- firm discipline which would have raised the standard of oonduct of the firemen aboard their vessels, and by .so doing have encouraged a larger proportion of better-claBS men to take up th 6 work. These arc deterred at the present time from following this occupation by the fact that bo many of the men engaged in'it are of the stamp with which we have grown unpleasantly familiar of late. ; Tho public are being put to great inconvenience, and thf Shipping Company to heavy loss, simply because these firemen imagine they aro in a position to ride rough shod over the whole community; Business interests may be dislocated private arrangements disturbed mail services disarranged, anc heavy losses occasioned: these thihgi count fpr nothing with these men It is, of course ; preposterous thai a small and insignificant set'of un reasonablo and irresponsible poisons should be. allowed to even torn porarily tyrannise over the .publii in this way; but it is jusjb as well perhaps, that the long-continued ex cesses of the trouble-making clcmen amongßt tho firemen should hav led to the present climax. Soono or later serious trouble was bourn to come, and' it might as well b faced now as later*. The men ar utterly in the wrong—even those wlv might be expected to sympathis with them under normal condition admit this—and they should b taught a sharp lesson.