THE MERCANTILE MARINE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 56, 30 November 1918, Page 9

THE MERCANTILE MARINE

Sir, —With reference to the. letter published in your paper of November 25, signed "Hit Straight," it may be incidentally /remarked that'those in possession of the actun'. facts and who desire to present the truth tol the readers of your journal are in a position to hit much straighter than the person utilising the nom de plume of that character. Allow me to state that during the period of the war tho mercantile marine has boen depleted very largely of men , sufficient to properly nmf it, and this is due entirely to , some ! two thousand members of this union who have enlisted voluntarily for service abroad before conscription wus introduced, and a great many of these men , have sacrificed their lives in. the campaign, and many have been maimed for life. In addition to that and on top of it we have been met with iin epidemic at this port which has'' resulted in-the death of some thirty of our members, and these are merely stray cases incidentally picked ■ up, arid ,it is c'Vruated that when the complete re- ■ turns) are in, some fifty'members of the Seamen'*; Union wiil have passed away as a result of the luaUdy. On top of that about one hundred members are now lying in the various hospitals «t Wellington suffering withHlie complaint, and some, men who have been discharged as cured are still too weak to undertake employment,' and beyond that quite a number of men who have entered the service of the New Zealand mercantile marine since tin outbreak of war are now leaving its service and resuming their occupations on shore, (his having commenced since the announcement of peace. In addition to.this, a sadder state of affairs exists at Auckland, Lytteltoh, Dunedih, and other ports, especially at Auckland, where the 'ess tn the mercantile marine . will be fairly heavy, and -when totalled up the toil will be' fairly large. This naturally is making a- great

shortage of men for the manning of vessels, which any puerson with ordinary sense would understand, and instead of "Hit Straight" denouncing men for not taking employment, ho should sympathise with them in tho great loss being sustained, but evidently he is more interested and'concerned with the runningof ships and the making of profits for shareholders of a company than conserving tho health of the men who man the vessels, which any person with ordinary ship Tutanckai, it may bo mentioned that this vess2l has not had a crew on board for eome considerable time, and it was the intention of the Government to man the vessel for six or seven days to carry passengers and mails between Wellington and Lyttelton. In such rase of temporary employment men are- not going to accept the employment at the ordinary rates of payment, as by so doing they lose what may bo termed n permanent job in another vessel, besides getting their certificate of discharge marked "Reengaged," and when they leave the veseel they get' a further certificate which covers six or seven days' employment, an;l with such.a .certificate of discharge, and when they come to seek employment on another vessel, the officer of the latter ship wants to kno.v why they have Rot a discharge covering only six or seven days, and the men are required to go into lengthy explanations to satisfy the officer in order to get the permanent employment. In these circumstances £\ a day (n Masseyised £]~ equal to 135.), is not asking too much in view of its spending power, and it may be pointed out that so far as <lus vessel and the Government are concerned, the men might have been starving before she would give them «ny employment, seeing that the vessel has been laid on one side and employing no labour for a considerable tiine. In the case of the other Government steamer, the' Hin?moa, this vessel is engaged in tendering the various lighthouses of the Dominion, which mostly entails surfing work in boats, and beyond that the work is highly dangerous. In view of this most men have never been incline:! tu take on employment on the Eineiuoa, especially of late years, foj the reason that in the vessel, and where coloured labour was obtainable, it was always employed ovev and above the heads of European snincn, and in this action has incensed the men against tile ship, and I recollect some years ago lodging a complaint with the Marine Department in regard to the crew of this vessel being mostly coloured men. No doubt "lift iStrajght" is an exceptionally clean class of, individual, and well accustomed to the methods of digging men out of ship's quarters to turn, ■to. , His language under this heading is quite suffi..-ioJit to iidicate the'class of martinet he would be on board ship with meii under his charge, nlid this is quite sufficient to account for his letter in denunciation of sailors, firemen, trimmers, and greasers; but 1 just want, to say that these men ,:re much superior to the individual who' very weakly attempts to denounce them,' and I also, want io point out that when men are treated as men on board ship instead of as animals, and given decent and clean accommodation, they vill the.'i act more .in the direction "Hit Straight" would like them to act; but it is quite possible he -is one of the last individuals who would advocate the improvement of seamen's conditions on toard shin or anvwhere else.-I am, etc., W. T. YOUNG. General Secretary Federated Seamen's union. November 28. ]918.