NEW ARRIVALS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 217, 12 September 1908, Page 6

NEW ARRIVALS.

THE lONIC'S PASSENGERS

DISTRESS IN THE HOMELAND

The White Star liner lonic has arrived in Port Nicholson with over 700 people on board, who are all landing in Newl Zealand. Of these 531 have travelled in the third-class, 110 in the second, and 26 in the first saloon. In addition.' to these, there will be 32 stewards, who will be discharged in New Zealand, but who have been on the full-paid list, as distinguished from mere workers for their passage. The third-class passengers have not exactly come out for pleasure. They mean business. Looking things fairly in the face, they see the unfavorable state of things at Home—desperately bad. And so they come to the newland. Some with cash in amounts running from anything beyond a few shillings up to £700 or £800; but all are .freighted with hope. In fact, the lonic, in addition to some thousands of tons of general cargo, dead-weight and measurement, is loaded down to the Plimsoll mark, and beyond, with hope. ;: ~■',. CLASSES OF TRADESMEN^

All sorts of tradesmen are on board —tramdrivers, : photographers, steelworkers, Staffordshire miners, ivory turners, stationers, clerks, dairy farmers,, ploughmen, artists, even o a cowboy from Cripple Creek. The as- . sisted passengers include 65 farmers, one poultry farmer, 14 farm laborers, two ploughmen, two. wood-cutters, one dairyman, two brickmakers, and a forester. The "assisteds" number 307 souls, which includes 104 children. The capital declared by assisted passengers' to the High Commissioner runs into £7809, and as the High Commissioner has to be satisfied that the capital is convertible int6 sterling on sight or is in gold itself, it may be seen that the people who get reduced passages from the Government are far from being penniless. Here are some of the amounts brought by individualjs:—One man proves himself to possess £800 in cash, another £750, then the amounts run to £700, £600, £260, £250, £200, £120, £100, and so on down to £25. The capital brought I jby nominated passengers is not declared. . That is unnecessary. They : come to friends here, and it is assumed that they are thus not likely to be thrown on the rates. The "nominateds" number 99, of whom 31 are children, and 14 are wives coming out to rejoin their husbands, who have made things comfortable before doing as many men have done who come out by the lonic: bring out the lot and chance it. CHILDREN. With the fourteen wives came also twenty-three children, wh° will no doubt be glad to see their fathers as the fathers are once again to see their wives. Children? The lonic seemed to be alive with them. The ship was actually a floating; city, for she carried sufficient skilled persons to start a fair sized town in some decently fertile uninhabited stretch of territory.

_Mr A. S. S. Danby, the Immigration Officer, who had a talk with all the assisted passengers, and nearly all the unassisted ones, too, described them as "a very creditable, decent lot of people, with the makings of good colonists, anxious and willing to work."

They came from all parts of Englnnd in the majority of cases, and fhere were a good many Scotsmen. Every county in England and some of *he Welsh counties were represented. One met the "proud Salopian," the of Kent and the Kentish man. The Yorkshireman and "Zummerzet■^hireman" were on board, and then

were added cockneys and a few Jewsall come out to do better.

i. THOUSANDS UNEMPLOYED

I Things were desperately bad at i Home, especially in the building trade, according to the reports one gathered from the immigrants. The building trades of London and the South oi England appeared to be in a shocking condition. Thousands of carpenters and joiners—good tradesmen, steady ! men, and with families—are walking i the streets from job to job, only to I find a notice ''No hands wanted." A carpenter passenger who worked in London told a representative of The Post that he had been out sixteen weeks end on. The Franco-British Exhibition made a little work, but it was a mere drop in the ocean. The job was rushed with men f a% in ex- ! cess of requirements. Other carpenters I gave the same doleful account of the I state of trade in other parts of England, ' and the same tale was told by Scotch artisans. The latter came for the most part from Aberdeenshire and Lanarkshire (including Glasgow). The shipping strike had been followed with intense suffering for all, classes of workers and terrible business stagnation. .

ANYWHERE IN NEW ZEALAND

•The passengers for the most part do not seem at all particular where they go in New Zealand, so long as they i get work;. but for form's sake they I book to a definite -port, and this is. the order of the booking of the seekers after work:—Wellington, 169; Auckland, 179; Napier, &0; Gisborne, 17; Lyttelton, 34; Dunedin, 36; Bluff, 10; O'amaru, 1; Timaru, 4; Westport, 18; Greymouth, 2; Wanganui, 13; New Plymouth, 17; Port Chalmers, 3; Napier, 3. Many o* the second-class I passengers are also on the lookout for favorable openings for brains, muscle, I and capiial. UNEMPLOYED DOMESTICS. Miss Bremner, the lady inspector for the Labor Department, the lonic, as she does every ship bringing out immigrants, in order to afford every possible information to women ! workers, and to put them in the way of getting a job. if they need it. As a rule Miss Bremner is seldom able to I secure a domestic servant. On this trip she was more successful. She had a cheerful twinkle in her eye when, in answer to a question, she said she had secured the names of soveral domestic servants who were anxious to get places. As a general rule they are always engaged (in a professional sensed at least) before they reach New Zealand, and girls in want of places are extremely feiy. Miss l Bremner was indisposed to state how many girls she would have available. The assisted domestics number 15, of whom six booked for Wellington,, three for Auckland, two for Lyttelton, two for Port Chalmers, and two for Napier; but. there were others among the .unassisted. . ■ • ; The task of medically inspecting such a large number—ship's company and passengers—was a heavy one for Dr. Pollen, Port. Health Officer, but there were no rejects, scrupulous care having been exercised at, Home, and several passengers, slightly suspected of chicken-pox, were not allowed to proceed beyond Plymouth.—Post.