TIPS FOR STEWARDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4008, 14 August 1915, Page 3

TIPS FOR STEWARDS.

NEW OLA 1 BE HONORED IN Till BREACH.

Bv Telegraph- Special Correspondent WELLINGTON, Aug. 1.3

The question of tins to stewards is causing some comment. Although ckuiso 2-1 of the Award of the Cooks and Stewards of the Union S-S. Co. reads: “No worker coming within the scope of this award shall accept any tip Irom any passenger after Ist August,” tlm clause appears to ho more honored in the breach than in the observance.

“Passengers to Wellington (says the “Post”) state it as tlicir experience that since Ist August, when to accept a lip became a breach of the award, stewards have shown no repugnance .to pocket gratuities aiTd reluctance’ to' rid themselves from the • icgrndation of having to augment their wages’ by what practically amounts to soliciting alms from passengers—in other words, by taking lips. Passengers themselves, it seems, connive with the stewards in this matter.”

A well-known lawyer coining up from the South was seen to give a steward half a crown. He was asked if lie was not an accessory to a broach of the award' as affecting tips. “Not at all,” he replied. ‘“T asked the man to got my hot hath ready and then to buy me a newspaper. I gave him a. half-crown for the newspaper.” Another passenger overcame the difficulty by giving the steward half a crown and asking him if lie thought it was a good coin. The steward said it appeared to he quite good and pocketed it with a smile. The way a steward is said to have put it to a passenger on the East Coast run was thus: “No tips after Ist August; no luggage removed after that date.” Seriously speaking the clause in the award is practically a dead letter already and likely to’bo, notwithstanding the Court’s representations to the men to give full effect to it. It could hardly he otherwise, inasmuch as while it is a breach of they award for stewards to take tips, the scope of the award does-not take in the passenger, who .persists in paying for and is prepared to so regard anv little attention paid to him when at sea.