DISSATISFIED SEAMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81857, 4 October 1906, Page 2

DISSATISFIED SEAMEN.

TIRED OF ARBITRATION COURT. Per Press Association. Wellington, October 3. A rumour has been current that a strike among firemen and seamen on coastal vessels for higher wages was imminent. Mr Kennedy, local manager of the U.S.S. Co., declares he had heard nothing of ii, nor had anything happened to lead him. to believe tnc rumours were reliable. Mr Jones, secretary of the Federated Seamen's Un ion, speaks to the same effect. "If the men," said Mr Jones, "had any movement in mind, ihey were engineering it entirely by themselves. By going out on strike in the way suggested, the men would be cutting adrift from the authority of the Union. "With regard to discontent," resumed Mr Jones, "that is general, and I won't attempt to disguise it. We have in our mind an idea very much talked about and discussed in our meetings, the idea of leaving the Conciliation and Aibitradon Act severely alone, and cancelling our registration when the proper time arrives. We know the cancellation during the currency of an award does not exempt the union from liability, but we think thai as a body the Seamen's Union has been before the Arbitration Court for the las. time." Mr Jones then submitted that in Australia, where 'competition was keener in every way, firemen and seamen had been gran ed an increase in wages without having recourse to the Court, though an Aibiiration Act existed. Diplomacy had secured fot those men a benefit which New Zea landers had failed to secure after 11 years' battling.