COLONIAL SHIPPING CONFERENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 18

COLONIAL SHIPPING CONFERENCE.

EFFECT ON BRITISH SHIPS. THANKS PROFERRED TO NEW ZEALAND. . (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 29. , New Zealand's shipping laws and the ' action of the representatives of- the Dominion at the recent Colonial Shipping Conference are already beginning to have effect here. Until that conference took-place there had never been general agreement, that undermanning of ships meant their unseaworthiness, but that being now conceded an unofficial conference took place on Wednesday evening of representatives of the National Sailors and Firemen's Union, the Cooks and Stewards' Union, the Shipwrights' Society, the Marine Engineers' Association, and the Amalgamated Societr of Engineers, to see if something could not be done toward arriving at some basis for j- the manning of British ships. Among those present was Mr Bell, of Sydney, who is a native of Lyttelton. New Zealand. Mr J. Havelook Wilson. M.P., presided, and read extracts from the pro- [ ceedings of the conference, layine stress on observations made by Sir Joseph Ward and the reply he drew from the Board of Trade officials that undermanning meant unseaworthiness. The thanks of the British mercantile marine, he said, were due to New Zealand and Sir Joseph Ward for , what they had done —an observation which j was greeted with loud applause. : As a result of the conference an influential dpnutation yesterday waited uoon the Right Hon. D. Lloyd George. M.P.. president of the Board of Trade, and asked that the Board of Trade Advisory Committee should be recommended to take ths ouestion of undermanning into' consideration. Mr Lloyd George at once promised that this should be done, and he described as " ghastly" a list of deaths »nd desertions that had taken place ..on a well-known 'Atlantic liner within two years, while he said it was "monstrous" that cooks and stewards should have to work 16. 18 and even 20 hours a day. It may be added that the men's representatives paid a arrest tribute to the new ocean-fliere. the Lusitania and the Mauretania, and the ventilation of those 6hips. and the comfort - of the men. it beiner pointed out that out of the hundreds forminer the crew and staff there had only been* three chances at the end of the vovaare. On one of the older liners there- had, it was stated, been 181 desertions in New York in two years. ' All the delesrates were profuse in their gratitude to New Zealand for the lead that had been given. An immense part of the French railway system was built by Lord Brassey's father. Mr Braseey had in his employ at one time 75.000 men. while the cost of the underiakinars which lie established was no less than SO millions sterling