THE STEAMER HOLD UP

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10291, 28 May 1919, Page 4

THE STEAMER HOLD UP

On Monday night tho ferry boat Maori was held up and a large number of citizens were turned out into something like a blizzard. Women and children were subjected to this hardship, and poor people whoso means enabled them only to cover the cost of the journey to their destinations were put into serious financial trouble. This, it has been announced, was the result of the refusal of tho ship’s firemen to go to sea without a complement of men sufficient to man all her boilers. It was added that tho men had gone to sea many times with only enough men for some of her boilers. Now, it is difficult to suppose that these firemen exposed' all those women and children and poor people to serious hardship out of mere wantonness, like those schoolboys who, some time ago, put a gate up on the railway line just to see what would happen when a train came along. As they had some ether reason, the public is entitled to know what it was, and to hear the other side of the matter, before making up its mind —the mind of tho public, of course, means in the end the punishment of the offenders; and tho time has come for recognising that it is an offence to interfere with public utilities. People entrusted with tho control and the working of public utilities do their work subject to an honourable understanding with the public to keep things going, even if they quarrel with one another. About the time of this hold-up of the Maori there was a shipping trouble at Dargaville. Those concerned got round a table, listened to reason, and went on with their work. Why can the same sort of thing not be done when things are tending towards the hold-up of a great public utility? Parliament might do worse than pass a law making such procedure compulsory whilst safeguarding all interests concerned.