Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 380, 20 August 1903, Page 7

Traveller.

FIVE HUNDRED IDLE SHIPS. SjjgT is estimated ttat there were, a gift month ago, fully 20,000 men conj§|| nected with the shipping industry **" in London out of work. About 500 ships are laid up in different ports throughout the country, owners having decided to wait until the foreign market impioves. The majority of these vessels belong to London, but owners keep them ia other ports to avoid payment of the heavy London dock dues. 'Tramp' steamers fortunate enough to secure charters are only importing very small cargoes. Two yeara ago London docks were the tieutre of leinarkabie activity; all the

, — B wbarvei were thronged with busy workers, and vessels lay alongside each other until the wholle of the available water space was occupied. Last month, however, the docks were comparatively deserted. Prom Fresh Wharf to the West India Dock groups of men able and willing to work congregate daily, but the stagnation is complete. Many of them are depsndent upon relief organisations. Some have not earned money for several months. Others are homeless, and at night are compelled e f? 8k rofu Se in cold barges or any out of the way corner which may afford protection from tha keen air. Several pawnshops in the city refuse to take more pledges The premises are already overstocked, and the proprietors have no more capital to invest. Sailors and firemen are also feeling the depression. Their union officials state, that fully 3000 able bodied men are waiting for their ' ships to come in. The appearance of Shields Harbor is scmewhat remarkable, s'ated the 'Expiess' of 14'h January, owing to a large quantity of idle tonage. The number of idle vessels is estimated at about 109, as against s< ma 80 or 90 during the same period of last year. The principal causes of this condition of things may be summarised as low freights, excess of ship building, capture of coasting trade by foreigners, effect j of the Boer war, the control of South African trade by the ' Ring,' the displacement of older vessels by modern steamers, the closing of Baltic and Black Sea porta for the winter, and the high price of coal. Freights are so low as to create a record in shipping. This ia due, to some extent, to bad trade, but the invasion of the foreigner has also something to do with it. Ship owners are well aware that when the Black S3a and Baltic ports are closed in the winter months numbers of vessels, flying foreign flags, come to the United Kingdom, and their owners, being able to work thoir vessels at much less expense than Britich owner?, are enabled to quote lower freights than the latter for coasting trade, which it is stated is gradually passing into their hands. The writer suggests that the Government should follow the footsteps of the United States and France, and adopt aa act restricting the coasting trade to vessels -flying the British flags, English ship owners would doubtless soon perceive the advantage of making that trade a specialty. WILD M&N OP BORHEQ. Two men of science are exploring the island of Celebes, adjacent to Borneo, bent on proving the existence of that creation of the county fair and the.' side Bhow,' the wild man of Borneo. Dr, Paul and Dr. Fritz Sarasm are the explorers who are hunting the wild man on his native heath. When the two scientists landei at Macassar they heard stories of the existence of the wild men, and these they thought to be merely myths. It was said that a type of primitive man was extant and to be fcund in the unexplored wilds. Their informants said the wild meH were so shy and untamable that it was almost impossible to get near to them, even to catch a glimpse of them. The stories were not generally believed in Macassar, and the explorers thought at first that escaped criminals had tafcn to the mountains and had frightened the natives into believing them to be wild. Upon further inquiries they learned that the wild men, or ' wood men,' were confied to a certain district, and were subject to a rsj*h. They proceeded to this district bearing gifts to the potentate. Under the influence of a wide distribution of presents the explorers so * orkad on the rajah that he agreed "to show them certain typas of the wood men who were held ia captivity. He had a man, two women, and a child brought before the scientists, who decided at a glance that they belonged to a primitive race of man. These specimens, however, were half4amed, and had been in captivity so long that they had lost many of tne characteristics of their race. The rajah added that the real wild men lived in the mcuatains. Protected by nature to a extent, they live in the fashion of men of the stone age, without many of the accomplishments of gentlemen of that period. They defend themselves with stones, not even having learned the art of making the stone hatchet, which indicates that they are considerably behind the state of civilisation in which our ancestors of the atone age lived. They are cave dwellers, not having learned to build shelters and probably not caring to. They are monogamous. Culture is at such a low ebb with them that they cannot even count, and they do not know how to tell a lie. They are in such a primitive state that they have to tell the truth. Possibly their vocabulary is not scffiiiently developed. These stories of the rajah have interested the scientists, and they are now in the mountains trying to find the real ' wild man of Borneo.'

THE ONLY WAY, 'One 6"ay when I was ia C;iro, Egypt,' said a gentleman who occasionally makes a trip abroad, ' the driver of a loaded camel passing through the streets swore at his beast in good round terms. A native missionary who happened to be passing called for the man's arrest Qaeerly enough, a city in which everybody shears in almost every language known to the earth, has an ordinance or edict or something of the kind against the habit, though it had not been enforced for half a century. •The driver not only swore at his camel, but later on at the missionary and the officer who arrested him. I shouldn't wonder if ho also swore at the judge, as he was sent to gaol for 10 days iH default of a fine. The instant he was taken away the camel lay down in his tracks, and I stood by for two hours while the police vainly tried to move him. Taey whipped, kicked and pounded the poor beast, but he would not get up. They tried to roll him out of the road, but he refused, to move a foot. ' At length, when traffia in the narrow street had been blocked for nearly half a day, word was sent to the Governor. As big a man as he was he dared net have the camel shot. There was a way out, however, and he took it. He ordered the driver released from gaol and told him to go on swearing) and in less than five minutes the beast was on his feet and swinging along the street. I was on hand to hear the swearing, snd, though I couldn't understand Egyptian, I was satisfied that the man's vocabulary discounted anything ever heard outside the land of deserts. One single word meant the sentence: ' Blank your eyes, your ears, your nose, your legs, your body and your soul, forever.' And the man made use of that word 320 times in 60 seconds, and had room to throw in a few others to ornament the edges.'