Navy Style ...

Rona Away After 11 Weeks’ Tie-up

AFTER being tied up in Sydney for 11 weeks and two days, the CSR Co.’s Rona got away for Fiji on October 28. (See PIM, Oct., n 15 nnri Rpnt n 191 P 1 \ i u ’ P ’ , ™ A black ban was placed on Rona by the maritime unions as soon as she reached Australia because she had not used an Australian crew.

It was stated that the “sentence” on Rona, because her owners did not fall into line, was to be three months.

The time was actually a little less than that with the Unions fighting every inch of the way.

The Company had to take on each union separately Painters and Dockers, Cooks, Seamen, etc—and in eight separate Arbitration Court cases get the necessary bans clause Inserted in the awards.

Communist policies on the Australian waterfront in the last. 10 years have resulted in less shipping and less work for Australian seamen, The Rona tie-up will not help them either

Before the Rona reached Aus tralia on her delivery voyage, the Company preparing for possible trouble, engaged a UK molasses tanker, Atheldutchess, to make one trip from Fiji to Australian ports .fL molasses this ghip hag three times the city of Fiona> which had been do f ng job> all Austr alian molasses storage tanks are now full after one trip, an( j Fiona has had her crew pa id o ff an( j will be tied up in Syd ney un tii the New Year, it j S understood that the Com pany originally considered register ing Rona in Suva, but was warned by the Australian maritimei unions that if it did, a!l Company Stops, refineries and mills in Australia, and probably in Fiji would be tied up. ... Q IThe 1 The Company therefore decided to give Australian Un ons a-chance to man Rona—but struck three months trouble an yhow. It is underatood toat the Company 18 reconßidering the question of registration.

Navy Style ...

Navy tradition has some odd angles. This photograph shows Rear-Admiral J. E. H.

McBeath, RNZN, being piped “on board” at the FRNVR bass at Lami, near Suva. And the object from which the Rear-Admiral is stepping is not, as you might think, “a little bridge over a gutter” — it is a gang-plank.

In October, New Zealand Navy and Air Force Chiefs visited their establishments in Photo: Fiji PRO.