AN ILL-ARRANGED IMMIGRANT SHIP.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3953, 21 March 1884, Page 4

AN ILL-ARRANGED IMMIGRANT SHIP.

[BY TELEORAPn.] Auckland/ Thursday,

The stcerago and nominated passengers by tlio ship Northumberland are an excellent class of immigrants. The domestic female servants have been all engaged. Tlio immigrants' quarters, it is stated by a reporter after inspection, arc miserable, and -totally InadeTfffixte'piwisionappears to havo been mado for tho health and comfort of the passengers, not to speak of tho means of obtaining moral discipline and decency. Tho bunks being low and narrow, the passengers could not dress and undress in them, so their only resource to secure a show of decency was to stand in front and bulge out tho curtains to afford them a littlo covered space. The singlo men Avoro not accommodated according to class, tho nominated immigrants being berthed along with the steerage passengers. The complaining lot, numbering fourteen, were paekedjinto an apartment which, according to measurement mado by a passenger, is 12ft 9in in length Ly Bft Gin in breadth, whilo it is 7ft. 6in high. The bunks arc ranged brcadthwiso, and as from the breadth about 3ft has to be substractcd for a passage, there is only ftft 6iu left for the bunks, and it will readily be believed that one of the passengers had to knock the end board ofF and hang his feet over tho edge when ho went to sleep. In the after hatch there was also overcrowding. Four young men occupied a singlo birth und a married man, with a largo family, was crushed out of his berth and slept on a dining-tahle. The berths were of very limited dimensions. Some of the passengers complain of tho inferior quality of tlio food, but, unless as regards tlio bread, thero appears to have been little canso for grumbling. Tho reporter was informed that the greater portion of tho bread supplied was sour and nearly uneatable, and tho sight of a largo slop tub on deck, iilled to overflowing with a low of blue-moulded bread in half loaves and smaller proportions, was not prepossessing in appearance. Tho passengers also complain that they had to cook most of their food, though the contract ticket stipulated that it should be cooked for them. Tho most glaring defect in tho arrangements was the placing the various closets aud bath-rooms on deck. Those conveniences were temporary buildings of rough sawn timber, and wero of most primitive construction. A bath- room and a closet marked "For females only" wero stuck right opposite the galley on deqk. Tho closet had been badly kept or constructed, for it omitted a horrible stench, and this so close to tho cooking quarters ali tho voyage cannot have conduced to health. A result of tho bath-room being placed in such a place was that the female passengers never used it. No doubt it is due to tho cxcollont control of Captain Todd, tho efficient oversight of Dr. Atterbury, and the gouoral supervision of the other officials that, amid such unfavorable surroundings, propriety, health, and morality were preserved. A family who came out under the patronago of Goo. Vesoy Stewart for Tauranga, complained of being in a sense tho victims of false representation. Thoy allege that from tho circulars issued by Mr Stewart to induce people to emigrate they wore led to understand that the TaurangaRotorua railway was in course of construction, and that work would ho found by them immediately on arrival. On the strength of this the head of tho family throw up a situation on a railway which ho had held for many years, and made arrangements for emigrating. _ Just before starting, however, another circular of Mr Stewart's was placed in his hands, which stated that tho railway might not just bo in the forward state previously indicated, but advising tho emigrants in that case to "put their prido iv their pockets, and take whatever work thoy could got."