STRAY CHILDREN.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 13, 15 June 1874, Page 3

STRAY CHILDREN.

To the Editor of the 6lc.be

Sib, — Yes, she was rather a nice ship to come out in as a passenger, although I have found out myself that when you travel with Scandinavians and the smallpox together, it begins to get monotonous before the end of the voyage. Thirty-five deaths, and that too with one of the quickest passages on record, is, I should say, rather rough on the passengers. I wonder if they were really overcrowded, or if the ventilation was attended to. I wonder likewise if the same supervision was exercised on board of her that was upon the Ballochmyle, which landed here five hundred passengers, and what is better, with a clean bill of health. Things seem to have been conducted on board of that ship in a way which deserves all the praise, not only of the commissioners, but likewise of the emigrants, for the cleanly manner in which the ship was brought into harbor. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and if you don’t believe me, visit the Ballochmyle and see it exemplified. There is a story current about a gentleman who, after spending the honeymoon among the supplejacks of Pigeon Bay, got tired of that bushy location, and wishing to show off the accomplishments of his adored Angelina among the elite of some adjacent city, took a passage on board one of the Royal Mail steamships, which unfortunately broke down opposite a point of land known as Kok Karata. It is likewise said that pluck, energy, and perseverance are to be found among men employed in the Government pilot service, at least the pilot boat came to the assistance of that doomed ship, and after a pull of six hours against a heavy sou’wester, landed that happy couple safe and sound. Most people would say that that was a gallant trick. Would you like to hear the sequel. I won’t give it to you, but I may say that if I had been a dealer in cereals, 1 should have presented each of the pilot boat crew with a bag of chicken feed, or a sack of seconds, if I thought that a cwt. of flour was too great , a luxury for ordinary people employed in the pilot service to be presented with.

I am painfully aware of my ignorance in most matters, but like a good many more overrated men in New Zealand, my information is in no way hampered on that account. I simply want to know whether the Government intend to import many more consignments of that, class of females that have landed here lately. A lady pilgrim, one of the first four ships, told me to-day that the onehalf of them can neither cook, wash, or iron. She says their ideas get so expanded on the passage out, but more especially after arrival with the attentions that are paid to them by a kind and parental Government, that they actually imagine they were only sent here to give the colonial youth a treat looking at them. I should like to know whether that pilgrim was telling the truth or not. When a soldier strikes a superior officer it always ends in ignominy, sometimes in death, and when a sailor strikes his captain or his mate, he gets a week’s hard labor, or in other words, six days of idleness. I wonder if it is worth the while of any captain to take any notice of any consignments of goods that he may take out with him in his ship ; would it not be better for him to allow the sailors to broach the cargo, and then sit down quietly along with them and enjoy it, instead of harassing himseirgoing to police courts 1 A good many people of what is called the “ upper ten” want to know what that man Holloway’s opinions are concerning Canterbury as a field for emigration, and as I happen to be the only man in Canterbury who is in that gentleman’s confidence I intend to give you his opinions of Canterbury, of her people, of her institutionas, morally, physically on Saturday ueqt. Yours, See., Q>