HOKIANGA BAR

Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 11

HOKIANGA BAR

ABOLITION OF SIGNAL STATION MARINERS PROTEST VIGOROUSLY. ... AUCKLAND, June 12. Criticism of the proposal to remove the harbour master and abolish the signalling services at Hokianga is made by firms and associations interested. Captain B. Burk, secretary of the Auckland Merchant Service Guild, to-day sent the following telegram to the Minister of Marine:— “Auckland Merchant Service Guild makes emphatic protest against the withdrawal of the harbour master at Hokianga. The Hokianga bar is considered by masters to be the most dangerous in New Zealand, and requires constant supervision by a competent man in order to be negotiated with any confidence. No cons.deration of economy can justify the action taken, wliich may result in the sacrificing of seamen’s lives. Your Government will be held responsible for any disaster which may occur.” “ The official who ordered that should be sentenced to cross the Hokiansa bar twice a week for the rest of his life.” That was the personal comment of Mr 1. F. Anderson, secretary of the Seamen’s Union. He also sent a telegram to the Minister of Marine in the. same strain as that the Merchant Service Guild. It reads: “ You cannot expect to escape personal responsibility if a disaster occurs on the notoriously dangerous Hokianga bar through the discontinuation of an essential signal service. Such an economy amounts to juggling with seamen’s lives.”