The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-02-20

Held S. S.
SOnOna
TROUBLE IN SYDNEY DELAYED
OCEANIC BOAT-SAILS FOR SAN
FRANCISCO AT 6 p. NJ.

The Oceanic steamship Sonoma, Cap
| tain Trask, arrived off port early this
morning from the colonies, docking at
the Oceanic wharf at 10 o'clock. She
was detained outside longer than usual
on account of the examination neces-
sary of some 60 new members of the
crew, concerning whom there was a lit
! tie confusion. There is plague in sgd
ney and the health authorities here are
using every precaution,
The Sonoma was three days late in
leaving Sydney because of a strike of
the men in the engineers department.
Forty-nine men were arrested and jail
ed for 30 days for desertion and a new
crew was shipped, the vessel lying out
in the bay pending the getting of the
crew.
On January 81 it appeared as if the
difficulty had been satisfactorily set
tied, but the next day the Federated
Seamens Union failed to keep their
promise to supply a crew. The nego-
! tiations were carried on by Senator
| Guthrie, president and grand secretary
Of the Federated Seamen's Union of
! Australasia, and it was understood that
the matters had reached such a stage
! that an agreement was drawn up
whereby the Oceanic Company would
| pay the fremen $50 per month from
the time they signed the articles until
they returned to Sydney. The COM
pany undertook the return Of the men
to Sydney, and i'm the event Of their not
being employed on the return journey
they would receive steerage passages
and the full rate of pay. This agree
ment was satisfactory to the officials
of the union, and there seemed no
difficulty in the way of supplying a
competent crew The men themselves
however appear to have held different
views.
The officers of the union did every
thing possible to induce the men to
join the vessel but without avail, says
the sydney Morning Herald of Febru-
airy Q. 1T is more than likely that
further trouble will follow the appoint
ment of the non-union crew. The cooks
and stewards on the vessel, who num-
Der about go. are staunch uniOnists and
in labor circles it is considered almost
certain that they will come out if the
ton. That will mean a further delay
and should the local union act on
similar lines to those adopted by the
Seamen's Union, the positions will be
extremely hard to fill.
"There is another phase of the ques-
ton which is claiming the attention of
local unionists, and that is what effect
the employment of nOn-union labor on
the Sonoma will have on the other YES
sells owned by Messrs. Spreckels and
Company. A prominent uniOnist, speak
ing on the question yesterday, said that
should a non-union crew be engaged, a
cable would be despatched to America.
|. The result of that, in his opinion,
would be that the whole of the crews
on the other vessels owned by the COM
pany would come out as a protest"
On February 2 the Sonoma left Sgd
lney On February she reached Auck-
land, sailing the next day. On Febru-
airy II Page Page was made and left
the day following.
Imports are as follows: p cases con-
serves. 47O cases onions, 300 carcasses
mutton and lamb, 10 cases butter,
cases smoked fish, $50 cases onions, Is
bags meat, cases butter, l case curios
Passengers for Honolulu are: Miss
H. L. Averall, Peter Peter and wife, E
Palmer, G.. c. Munra and Pauline Nato
The through list is large.
William j. Devlin and John T. DOna-
van are prominent Irishmen touring
the world members of the Gaelic Lea
que. The Reverend j. Curtis has beer
called to a church in Los Angeles from
, Sydney. l.. f. Cockroft, wife, two
daughters and son are aboard. Cock
roft is general passenger agent of thu
Oceanic Steamship Co.
The Sonoma takes aboard 300 tons o
coal here and sails for San francisco
at o'clock this evening.