SYDNEY MAIL-BOAT HELD UP

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2646, 17 December 1915, Page 7

SYDNEY MAIL-BOAT HELD UP

9 ;— > I FTOEMEN DEMAND INCREASED s . WAGES. Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright (Rec. December 16, 9.45 p.m.) ' Sydney, December 16. , The Manuka's departure for Wellington has been delayed .by her firemen, who are proposing to strike unless paid the same rate as firemen who sigh on at Sydney. E TROUBLE OVER. (Rec. December 17, 0.50 a.m.) ™ Sydney, December 16. e . The Manuka sailed at 5.30 p.m. The A dispute, which was a trivial one, has ? been settled. 1 . n A letter was recently sent to each steamship company by tho secretary of a the Federated- Seamen's Union of Now Zealand, asking for an increaso in t( .wages. Inter alia, the letter stated that the steamship owners in Australia had agreed to' an increaso from December 1 of £1 ss. per month and overtime to a uniform rate of is. Bd.' per hour. These inoreases apply to ships engaged exclusively- in the coastal trade of a State in Australia, in addition to inter-State, Eastern, Pacific, Vancou- { ver, and American trades. The reasons given for the request for an increase in New Zealand are that the present agreement was entered into at the termination of tfie industrial trouble ® of 1913, and at a period when normal ? conditions between nations existed. Ad- 11 ditional burdens, through taxation and ? otherwise, have now been placed on • members of the union. It is requested that the shipowners agree to the appli- ( cation of Australian increases to the New Zealand agreement from the same 11 date, it being agreed that should tho in- ? creases be taken off in Australia on tho termination of the war a similar reduction may be liiado in Now Zealand. Ij