SHIPPING HOLD-UP

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3187, 11 September 1917, Page 4

SHIPPING HOLD-UP

SMALL STEAMERS STILL DETAINED IN. POET. .There were no developments yesterday in-the seamen's strike, which has taken place on \the-' smaller steamers trading out of Wellington. So far there has. l>een no evidence of any disposition on the part of the owners to concede the demands that are being made for double watches on tho little boats. To make, such a concession would cost something like £600 a year, as weir as the expense of feeding the extra men, and that sum the finances of some of tho smaller companies cannot .stand. Tho shipowners state that {he understanding about the single man watches (always with the addition of the, officer in charge) was tho one clause in the June agreement that was understood clearly by, everyone, and that Mr. T. \\. Young, secretary of the Seamen s' Union, set it out quite lucidly in a circular letter to the members of his union,- and also wrote to one of tho companies, reeog. nising and agreeing to the clause, it tho demand were acceded to the shipowners say they consider it would bo'paying money to a man for sleeping in his bunk. , , , , ■ In aJdition to the eleven coastal vessels delayed on Saturday, tho following did not sail last night:-Wootton, for Lvttelton; Wakatn, for Kaikoura;- and Kapurii, for Patea. If a settlement is not arrived at to-day, tho. following five ships will probably not sail to-night :- Kouhmuifi for Napier; Ripple, for (iisbo'rne; Putiki, for Wanganui; Alexander, for Nelson and West Coast;'and Baden Powell, for Lyttelton. The total number of 6hips np to last night is fourteen.