THE ATTITUDE OF SEAMEN.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1901, 8 November 1913, Page 6

THE ATTITUDE OF SEAMEN.

MORE CREWS OUT. THE MOANA AND WILLOCHRA. A reporter was informed last evening, on tho, best authority, that the crew of the .Willochra will leave their ship when she berths this morning. The programme arranged for to-day ia that tho Willochra will como alongside the Taranaki Street Wharf so that her cargo of Island fruit may be conveniently removed to the fruit stores in Allen Street. She will probably berth about 5 a.m. It has been arranged that her crew will follow the oxamplo set them by their comrades of the Moana yesterday afternoon, and will come ashore with their chattels at 8 a.m.

The Moana's crew are now practically all out. Somoof them left the ship on Thursday evening, and a section came ashore when the vessel left the wharf last night- The rest were landed by a tugboat shortly before 9 p.m. Both the Moana's and tho Willofthra's crews aro sailing under foreign articles, their home port being Sydney. They .have signed on for the round trip—Sydney to San Francisco and back—and by their coming out they render themselves liable to a month's imprisonment. The Union Company's permanent port hands to the number of 13 also came out. These men have been in the habit of working in two sections, eight witli tho ooal gangs, and five with the casual oargo workers. Tho eight men who have been employed as supervisors of the coal | gangs were paid a weekly fixed wage. The five permanent cargo workers had been working under tho same conditions as the coal men. Later in.the afternoon two seamen and one fireman who ; were employed on the Terawbiti Jeft the vessel. The company did not experience any inconvenienco. and the places of the Tcrawmti's men were easily filled. The tug was thus enabled to carry out her harbour duties as usual. With regard to the "permanent casuals" as they have been called, not much difficulty was experienced in filling some of thei rplaces by otho Union Company's men, and the work, which under ordinary circumstances would have been done by tho permanents was carried on without hitcn. People who know the conditions and rates of pay under whioh tho latest body of strikers worked hold tho opinion that the men acted unwisely. They have had constant employment, and some of them have been with tho Union Company for a number of years.