BACK TO AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13456, 5 June 1907, Page 8

BACK TO AUSTRALIA.

FROM SOUTH .-AFRICA".

GLAD TO GET BACK HOME. '

THE SINGLE MEN GRUMBLE. Thk Swedish .steamer Atlantic, which ar-1 rived at Melbourne the other day, 7 had oaf I board 418 Australians who had becomeJ | stranded in South, Africa, and were being; j repatriated at the cost of the Common- J wealth 'Government. The vessel had been j , converted into an immigrant ship. The | passengers were divided into two setsj married and single. The married people I and their children were housed in the for-1 wardhold, while the single men were role-j gated to the afterhold. Over the hatch-1 'ways pine gratings had been put, so that j ' air might descend into the. crowded holds. • | while the'hold was divided into two storeys Iby a floor of pint. In the married quar- ' Iters cabins had been built, with bunks for ■1 12 persons in each. The single men hud 'to sleep in hammocks: Nearly everyone • was comfortably dressed. '.j It, was hard to believe that these people , were so poverty-stricken that they could .contribute nothing to their passage money j .'{back. Some of them smoked cigars, but 'that was among single, men. The, women were obviously the wives of working 'men. Children, too, wore, the c.arework look of those who know what- it is to be • hungry. One baby three months old died a J • few days after the vessel left. Durban.; 1 I These married people were glad to see A us- j ; India. Their treatment on the voyage had j ' delighted them. -I Down in the afterhold the well-dressed 'single gentlemen talked in a different way. • I "Something really ought to be said in prosiest against, the way we have been treated," I !exclaimed one of them. "We have been J'herded together in this pigstye, and we I ; have been fed worse than pigs. For tea >! wo got a few biscuits and a few daubs of I ; treacle. We got better rations than that -I in the war. For breakfast we got porridge , \ and more biscuits. Dinner was a better . 'meal, but 1 could not eat it—bully beef and 11tinned mutton. We only go soup twice > ; all the voyage, and until" a week age we . had no bread." All the single men did not i !speak in this way; but there was a disl! affected section. * They held meetings of i j protest often, and sent formal resolutions ; to the master. Captain Schmidt, who did r \ his best to satisfy them. On one occasion J such a meeting actually passed a vote of . want of confidence in the skipper, and ex- ' pressed its profound conviction that he had r I lost his bearings, and would never reach J Australia. The captain, fortunately, had ]\ a strong sense oi humour, or there might [ | have been trouble. The night before the |;vessel reached port, however, two illumi- ' nated addressesrough but genuinewere J presented to himone in the afterhold and ' j one in the forward. jj All united in telling the same story of ' i depression ;in South Africa. . Of the 418 J1 immigrants 173 were for Victoria, 190 were J ] for ''New South Wales, 19 for Queensland. ' 24 for West Australia,' and 12 for South 3 i Australia. .The Queensland section was s sent away in the steamer Cooma,;and the " South and West Australian passengers were 5 put on board the Bumimbeet. Everybody ! | was required to sign a paper declaring that 3 i he was an Australian, and giving the names >!of friends "and relatives here, the ship he loft in, his occupation, age, etc. This i, searching inquiry showed that about 50 of ' the:" repatriated Australians" had never J been in. Australia before, but desiring to f leave South Africa they had seized the l chance of a free passage, and palmed themr selves off as Australians. Twenty-five im-; j. migrants worked their way as stewards. -" ; —; ;: I—L ' ■ :