VOYAGE TO A NEW LAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 24

VOYAGE TO A NEW LAND

(By "Spunyarn.")

The log of a passenger written during a voyage to New Zealand in 1874, which is of interest, not so much because of the insight it gives into conditions t.i travel in those days, but because of the impressions recorded by the immigrant when he landed in the country, has come into my possession. The traveller who made "the voyage was Mr. W. Franklin, junr., and he left England, accompanied by his wife and four children, on May 8, 1874.

On May 7 of that year Mr. Franklin went on board the ship Conflict in the West India Docks. The ship left the jetty the same night for the basin, and the next morning the tug took her as far as Greenhithe, where she waited for the turn of the tide, proceeding thence to Gravesend. Here emigration officers came on board, paying the passengers their suspense money. No friends were allowed on board. On the 9th the ship was towed from Gravesend in the afternoon, and the tug left her the same night. The vessel rolled about very much previous to-getting sail'on her, and nearly all the adults, were seasick. On the morning of May 17 the first birth occurred, a baby girl being born to one of the passengers.

Between 9 and 10 o'clock one night the passengers were singing on deck,

and the doctor ordered the single men forward to''their, own. part, of the ship, and to cease their noise, as it was late. They did not pbey, so the captain ordered part of. the crew to man the force-pump used for washing the decks to clear them, but it was not used. Passengers were supposed to be in bed by 10 o'clock, and up not later than 7 a.m. The 19th was the first rough day and two children were in hospital with: the measles. Three vessels were sighted that day. . ; '

The tropics were entered on May 29, and on June 3 it was recorded that a passenger took ill with the measles, which was to prove a terrible scourge during the voyage. Two days later, the seamen finished . their "dead horse" (month's pay-in advance), and had a procession round the deck, a stuffed horse, Billy-go-easy on his back, and all the crew dressed up as gravediggers for the funeral of the horse. Last of all they hung him at yard-arm and then dropped him in the sea. They then went to the captain for grog. The Line was crossed on the 7th, there being no shaving or any- fun. ■

The following day the jibboom went by the board in a heavy squall. Mr. Franklin was on deck at the time, and had gone up to shut the hatches down, as he expected rain. He had just finished when the squall came on, and was forced to hold 'on to the meat casks, these being the nearest things at- hand, while the deck was at an angle of 45 degrees. A,,new boom was rigged up during the two next days. On the 15th a baby died with bronchitis and consumption, and was buried on the 16th. On the 20th a child died, and on the 16th a second child was born. On the 29th. the third birth occurred, and on July 7 the fourth. Joe the black cook died on the 10th from congestion of the lungs, and the following day a child died, it and Joe being.buried. LOST OVERBOARD. On the 14th it was rough and dry, and a .child died at 7 p.m. A seaman fell overboard off the mizzen topsail yard-arm at 8 p.m. while shifting the ventnor brace, the ship going 15 knots at the time, it was too rough to help him. On the 15th the dead child was buried, and on the 17th a: woman died, being buried a day later. On the 24th one of the single men died, and was buried next day. The mizzen topsail was carried away in a heavy squall at 3 a.m. on the 26th, and on the 27th the fifth birth occurred, but the child died within a few days. Mount Egmont was sighted on July 30. On August 1 the ship got within a few miles of part of the South Island, and on August' 2 arrived off Wellington harbour at 7 p.m. and signalled for a pilot who came off after dark. On the following morning, after anchoring about a mile from the lighthouse, she slipped her cable and ran into the harbour, dropping her other anchor six miles off the town of Wellington, just in time, as the wind went round again. A boat came off shore with fresh food, but it could not get alongside and could not get back to shore, sinking in shallow water. .The ship got alongside the wharf and all went ashore on August 6, the goods being sent up to the barracks. The chronicler noted: "Our depot is on top of a hill like the grandstand on Brighton downs; they give us plenty of grub here; I'm getting quite fat .... I went after a job on Saturday, the Bth, and went to work on Monday at a large stationer's; they do the Government binding; the wages here are £3 to £3 10s. Houses, two rooms, are from 10s to 15s per week; beef, prime 4d per lb, mutton sd, very thin stuff, bread 7d. . . . We have arrived here in the worst month of the year; out-of-door work has not begun yet; this is the wettest part of the year, and the dearest. "NICE QUIET PLACE." "Wellington is a nice quiet place, about two miles long, close to- the beach, hills behind, higher than the South Downs, and very lumpy; the people say the ground has risen 4Jft in the last ten years with earthquakes. Houses painted white, the larger ones covered with galvanised iron. Geraniums grow-8 feet high here in a wild state, and at Hull (Hutt?) they grow up the front of the houses like vines; they make hedges of fuchsias; both bloom through the winter.

"I don't advise bookbinders to come out here (the diarist was a bookbinder). Labourers that work in England for 12s a week, or navvies that

PAGES FROM AN EMIGRANT'S LOG

work for 3s or 4s a day get the advantage out here. The wages were Bs, but now 7s per day for pick and shovel men. The agent in s London told us that if we did not get work privately, the Government would employ us at 5s to 8s a day; it is a lie. Some of >our single men went up country and could not get work; they are now working for private persons felling timber in the bush, and get 3s to 4s a day, working very hard, and £2 to pay for tools; bread lOd, no butter at all; very bad indeed, great discontent. All the people here are money-grubs. Coals are £2 5s per ton, wood 17s to 18s per cord; wood for building is dear. We get plenty of watercresses, winkles, mussels, and oysters for the trouble of fetching them. The fish wait in the bay to hang themselves on a bunch of hooks as soon as you throw them in the water. The natives are very civilised, dressed like us, and got lots of money; most of the land belongs to them. . . . The houses in general are badly off for garden, ground being so valuable here.

"The streets in some parts are lit with gas, and others with American rock oil, like paraffin. The Government threaten to put us under canvas if we don't get houses before the other two ships arrive; fine thing that for

children, as it rains here very heavy. I must tell you what the barracks are like; they are " composed of several houses divided by partitions of about seven feet high into small rooms, one to each family, one fire to each house; that is better than the old Conflict, not a bit of fire there for anyone only in the cook's galley."