THE LADIES' COLUMN.

Bush Advocate, Volume V, Issue 354, 16 August 1890, Page 7

THE LADIES' COLUMN.

SHIPPING OISF DOMESTIC SERVANTS. (daily news.) "Now, is it roally. situations you young ■wasen are going: out for, or are you going to -tind husbands !-"' Tlicre 19 a general smile, -which seems to •■indicate that in tho single women's department of an emigrant ship, as elsewhere in the world, motives may perhaps be v little mixed, • and that with some of them at least the qucs- ' tion has been rather a home-thrust. Wo are on tho lower deck of the fine «teamship Oaptaiu Stuart, bound for Quecns-?-3and, with 449 souls all told, 423 of whom aro steerage emigrants, find 223 young, unmarried women, It is a queer medley presented to view as -we look round from tho » midst of it all.- It lwoks as though tho contents • of their kit-bags are getting- mixed up in inextricable confusion, and as though sheets and soup-plates, boxes of soap and mess.kettles, bottles of pickles and bundles of bedding, and hats and bonnets, and dresses ami cloaks, must necessarily be regarded as common property, and apportioned out quite egardless of original ownership. One of the i damsels has climbed up into her berth out of me/fee, and in the comparative seclusion of this -retreat la furbishing up some of the japanned contents of her kit- bag. Another is perched on the top of a box amid the general burly - Vburiy", placidly ; arranging 1 a puggaree around her hafc> add a third is. down in a corner adorning her hair by means of a small -«suare of looking-glass ehe has brought •in her pocket. Perhaps the most striking featnre in the whole scojio is tho entire absence of any indication of that sentiment rflommonly supposed to be appropriato to the . hour of leaving the land oi one's birth and kith and kin, and all the associations of a lifetime. Perhaps all that will come presently, when things have shaken down a > ait, ana there is time for reflection. At nresent everybodj- seems to be in a particuvlarly matter-of-fact mood, and apparently -there is nothing in the introduction to life on -ship-board at all calculated to awaken either . : t3» surprise, or the misgiving of these young •asdventurore who till an hour ago have pro■feably never before set foot on the deck of a «hip. " Is it situations you are going for, or hus--tjatkds?** ** Husband^ of bourse," promptly responds ;<&e of them with an air of reokloss audacity .fcfcffgestive rather of a desire to shock the .general sensß of propriety than of any very •truthful expression of her thoughts. "No, it ain't," says another rather uninrepossesslng young woman, who looks as •though ehe must have missed at any rate the foeat of her matrimonial obancea. " There's ijjjtentyo* husbands *ere if we wanted 'em. M • "There's pteat^r b' 'asbahds, and pkaty.V -Situations, too.'*put iri r( a termagant-looking 4 u laia.*t going for either. I'm going Because I said I would.*' . She had got a brother out in Australia, it . geetned, <and he was doing pretty well and ■wanted somebody to go out to him, and her* -sister, horned and bothered her to go out with tker, till «t last ek& said she,: would. "She .gofyme. to give up my place, and ehe bought ifier ifiings stnd paid her pound, and then she Backed out of it/ said the* young woman. ** % I esSys OTerybody '11 la^gh at 'c, but they Sia't a goln' to laugk at me, t says. I've made up my mind, and I'm off ;" • and off she was accordingly to the other nide of the -World, not because she had any particular '■fault to find with. thi» side, but jest on the of consistency. It is really exceedingly easy for a young *oman of her class to emigrate. The Queens- : find Government have long been shipping in Isrge,numbors. They are sending tfOlpw eight vessels a year thus freighted with dbmestio eervants, who may be of any a<*e from twelve to thirty-five, and who have only to get a certificate of respectability from a ,«ftagistrate or clergyman, to pass a not very stringent medical examination, and •to find a pound for a kit-bag and its contents. Alt the rest is absolutely free. They go down to the Emigration Depot at Blackball, usually on. tho Saturday, receive their ■Sits, their sun-hats and puggarees, and are ■maintained there at the expense of the Queensland Government till the following Tuesday or Wednesday, when they are taken on board, end landed free of charge at the Emigration Depot at one of the .ports of Queensland, where they are kept, free of -«ost, until they have such an offer of service ,as they may reasonably be expected to accept. , "And what; reaßy becomes df them?" tras a question put to Dp. Buckling, the greatly respected medical officer in charge •f the emigrants, who was yesterday starting on, Ma twenty-fifth voyage in the same -service. ".They are all immediately absorbed," was the reply. . " I hare often landed 200 girls, and in,a couple of days not a single one has .feeen'^ left* disengaged. They immediately ifiud situations; come of them settle with -squatters up the country, many of course giit married, and in one way and another they all find places without the slightest difficulty." *• But what? is tp become of unfortunate H&useholderß in this country if you thus run . #way W?th all our servants r" JDr. Hickling seemed to think he is not '•ailed upon to solve this problem, and invites ■'Ids interrogator to go and see tho married 7-jfeople's quarters. There are not this voyage ijcoany children, yet as we go down among the lidt-bags aiid tho babies, they appear to be r smarming like- sand-hoppera. Once in his experience has Dr. Hiokling had an outBreak of measles among his juvenile emigrants, and on «ne ternblo voyage he had '•holera. Apart, however, from epidemics the trip out to the Antipodes is not an unpleasant experience. The childcon do not •often suffer much from eea-eiokness, and "When they have got out ef port and have had Cmo to reduce things to a bttle order, all goes merrily enough. Already there is a young man with a concertina piping op in a viemoto corner; andnow come the ''constables" with steaming 1 hot tins of some s»vourBmelling stew. Messes are being arranged, and tables have been let down aud aro now .glistening with japanned orockery-ware and mctitl epooaa ia the soft glow erf electric lamps. ' But here on deck commotion still reigns supreme. A woman with a tearful, torri■fied face has come down to see her daughter «ff. She saw her on the tender, bufc she -•ant fiud her on the ship, and inquiries in •all directions have failed to elicit any response to her naino. Mrs. Tymons, who ia to aooompany the usunarried women aa matron, and who seems the very embodiment of ahrewd and kindly oommon-sense, reassures the pale-faced mother ana sends ■off for further inquiry. And while this ia, going on tho constables of tho ship are trying to clear out friends and relatives, and among thorn have discovered a sort oi stowaway in iho. person of a young woman who has neither a passage ticket nor kit, nor eortificatc of character and health. Of course this enterprising young adventuress has to fee sent back on to tho tender, though, all being well, she may make the trip in a >£ew weeks' time f when if she has been satisfied with the look of things ehe has obtained to-day she may easily qualify herself for a passenger next times Then there la a • deal of sorting to be done among the genuine passengers. Some married people have got in aaoong the unmarried ones, and Aero and there is an unmarried passenger who has got by mistake at the married end of ■the ship. There is a wooden barricade across the ship shutting off the single women .from all other passengers, and fiere they ate •to live aud move and hnvc thoir being during the whole voyage, which will probably bo of about seven weeks' duration, bringing thorn into Queensland about mid- winter. It cannot bo said that arrangements are •-altogether luxurious, but the ebjp ib ■cue of tho British-India Company^, and is large and well-appointed, and everything that can be done for comfort and health and decency of life on board is done, and the supervision is certainly all that could possibly be desired.. A wry capable aod experienced'matnira and an able medical officer bofh make 1 the entire journey, and Captain Stuai-t is a man greatly liked and respected by those •who know him, Stall, it is immigrant life, .and after all it is eliipping away from our

own shores matoriaTs of which, if all accounts may be rfelied : upon, we nro sadly in need. But they' aro free agents these domestic damsela — few of us indeed are quite so froo— free to go at any rate, but not for a time quite free to come back again.