SHEEP ON PASSENGER STEAMERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 24 March 1910, Page 3

SHEEP ON PASSENGER STEAMERS.

AN OBJECTIONABLE PRACTICE. The carriage of live sheep from the North Island and the Marlborough Sounds to Lyttelton usually finds employment for a number of vessels at this time of the vear (says the Christchurch "Press" of Monday'last). The trade is generally conceded to be a very profitable one, as the live freight is'quickly loaded and discharged with a minimum of expense for "handling." The numbers of live sheep brought to Lyttelton so far this year is considerably below the average, but it is noticeable that the Union Steam Ship Company has once more reverted to the practice of carrying live sheep on board passenger steamers. Last year several large shipments were brought down from Wellington to Lyttelton on the decks of passenger steamers, the ferry steamer Mararoa being utilised for the purpose on several occasions, much to the annoyance and discomfort of the passengers, several of whom were strong in their complaints. Attention was drawn to the matter in the columns of the "Press." and for the remainder of the season no more live sheep were carried in passenger steamers. On Saturday morning the Monowai arrived at Lytteltoa from Wellington with a fairly large consignment of live sheep on her upper deck, which extends for the full length of the ship. The whole of the deck space forward of the bridge and on either side of the deckhouses to within a short distance of No. 3 hatch, was railed off by hurdles into pens which were full of live sheep. The vessel arrived in port at 7.30 a.m.. but it was after 1 p.m. before the last sheep had been driven off the ship into the sheep trucks on the wharf. A reporter who watched the unloading process for a few minutes noticed that the decks were in ?. filthy state, and were so slippery that many of the sheep lost their footing as they were driven to the "race" leading to the trucks, while the unmistakeable and pungent odour peculiar to sheep-carrying vessels was strongly in evidence, as far aft as the saloon entrance. How the steerage passengers, the entrance to whose quarters is just abaft the bridge, fared for deck room was difficult to see. They could not get to the ship's rail from their entrance without climbing hurdles and getting into the pens. A narrow passage to enable the steerage passengers and the officers and crew to get backward and forward had been left between the hurdles and the sides of the deckhouse. It required a liberal washing down and vigorous scrubbing with brooms to remove the filth from the vessel's deck.

The ferry steamer Mararoa. which arrived at Lyttelton from Wellington at 11.30 a.m. with 150 passengers, had also a number of live sheep on her upper fleck, enclosed in hurdles, forward of [ the steerage entrance, while the sight of s large canvas ventilator suspended from the rigging and leading down into the after hold indicated that there was also live stock down below. The sheep were loaded at Wellington on Saturday afternoon, but they will not be landed at Lyttelton until this morning (Monday), by which time they will have been on board nearly 48 ' hours. Fortunately both the Monowai and the Mararoa had fine weather and smooth f-p»s on their way down, but had there been heaw rain, or bad weather, with the vessels rolling and pitching and shipping spray, the condition of their decks would have been bad indeed. Seafaring men, wellspp.sor.ed in the sheen carrying trade, readily admit that the conditions on board'vessels so employed are distinctly unpleasant. The decks are eiiciiinbcrcd with the hurdles, the sheep are very of ten seasick, and there is always the filth and the pungent penetrating odour, insemrablo from closely penned live stock. The cargo steamer Wanaka is bringing a lanre number of sheep to Lyttelton on Wednesday, and with the number of cargo boat* at its command, the Union Company, it is thought. muihl well arrange to carrv all the shf-ep offering in such boats .without putting them on board passenger steamers.