THE MISSING DREDCER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3556, 22 June 1912, Page 2

THE MISSING DREDCER.

COMPENSATION FOR CREW’S

DEPENDENTS

PROBABLY AN UNFORTUNATE POSITION.

[PER PKESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, June 21. In all probability the dependents of the crew of the missing dredge Manchester will ffnd themselves in a peculiarly unfortunate position, for they may not be able to claim any compensation at all in respect of the less of their breadwinnersThe secretary ef the Federated Seamen’s Union (Mr W. T. Young) told a Times reporter that the matter had been taker.- up by his union, and it had been decided to submit the facts to the union’s solicitor for his opinion, and the papers were sent forward yesterday. Correspondence which had passed between the Lyttelton Harbor Board and the union showed that the dredge .became the property of the Sydney Harbor Trust ou March Ist; that was about a month before the crew’s articles of agreement were signed. The Trust sent a representative across to New Zealand to take possession of the dredge, and to make all arrangements fftr the voyage to Sydney. This was where the question of compensation came in. The crew with one or two exceptions were residents of New Zealand, and meet of them had families living here. As at the time the articles .were taken out the dredge was the property of a New South Wales owner, it was to be presumed that she was ■ within the scope -of the New South W ales law as to compensation but the point was that the New South Wales law could not be invoked by dependents of the crew, because they were not domiciled in that State at the time the dredge was presumably lest. On the other hand, unless it was found that the fact of the articles of agreement having been entered into at Lyttelton had some bearing on the point, the compensation law of New Zealand also did not apply, because the crew were employed by an owner domiciled in another State. There was unfortunately no reciprocity in regard to compensation between New Zealand and New South Wales, though the Dominion hod a reciprocal arrangement with Queensland, Western Australia and Great Britain.