THE ROARING FORTIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 25 (Supplement)

THE ROARING FORTIES.

BY KOTARE,

EMIGRANT DAYS.

" The Roaring Forties and After," by Captain D. J. Munro, touches on a period of New Zealand history of which the memories are still very vivid, but which for some reason has not figured very largely in literature. It is also written from an unusual angle. The author was very young when ho took his small part in making New Zealand history, but our country made a strong impression on him; ho has seen much of the world sinco those golden days of his.youth, but he frankly admits that if Great Britain, and especially Scotland, did not hold the contre of his heart,, New Zealand would bo the only land for him. Besides that local interest, his book appeals to all that love the sea and the spacious days when the world was wide. It was in the old clippers that he made his voyages across the world to our Ultima Thule. An eager, adventurous boy, he lived through those days of rich romance when life was ono glorious experience after another; and the passing of the years has not dimmed ono whit the splendour of those early years. He still feels the thrill and the glow of those splendid years, and, what is mora remarkable, he can communicate them to the written record. That is what makes his story a genuine picco of literature. Ho is still the boy at heart. Ho remembers how cold he felt when the exigencies of sea service mado him lay aside the kilt that had been his only wear in his ancestral Highland glen, and compelled him to report for duty in the conventional nautical trousers. He had not the sad experience of that greatest of Scottish sailors, Dundonald, who reported on board his first man-o'-war with a sea chest of such formidable dimensions that the officer on deck, immediately ordered the carpenter to cut it down _to the orthodox size and shape; which Chips proceeded enthusiastically to accomplish with a large saw that not. only reduced the offending chest to moro negotiable proportions, but also in the process transformed the wardrobe so carefully packed by tho matornal hands to a sorry, mangled hotch-potch of garments, decapitated and curtailed. Clipper Days. His first ship was the Wild Deer, a magnificent clipper, which could reel off over eighteen knots under favourable conditions, which made tho passage from the. Clyde to Port Chalmers in sixty-eight days, which cut out the return voyage to London in seventy-two days from tho Bluff, and which, a fow days later, ran from London to Glasgow at an average speed of eleven knots. . . These were tho days of the emigrant ship's. Sir Julius Vogel liad inaugurated his policy of opening up tho country and bringing in settlers, and an unceasing stream of fast sailing ships was heading south from the Ola . World. Captain Munro began his sea career just as the splendour of the sailers was passing. While, the Wild Deer was'lying at Port Chalmers the first steamer chartered by the sailing ship companies arrived from Britainr Sh* was the lonic, four masted, barque rigged and able, under both steam and sail, to average fourteen marked the beginning of the end for . the emigrant sailing ships. . One of tho finest chapters in the book deals with an exciting week on tho homeward run, when tho Wild Deer first raced and beat the lonic, and then served in the same way the magnificent clipper tho Loch Garry. Captain Munro's description of the double raco is one of the most convincing pieces of sea writing I have evor read. He is still the youthful apprentice, .responding to all the tumultuous emotions of that week of glory. But all through these early pages of his book tho captain writes with that magic touch which gives those twin- graces of all true literature of power, glamour and gusto. Emigrants. Tho emigrants were housed in the tweendeck—single women aft, married people and children amidships, and single men forward. As thoy were coming out under special conditions, their life on board was very carefully organised and supervised. The net had been thrown pretty wide, and somo queer specimens had been gathered in. Thero were always some that considered washing a waste of good material and time. The first obvious task was to reduce to hygienic'proportions the enormous jungle of hair and whiskers that somo eager colonists desired to transport in its original state to tho new land. There were some sad partings during theso first days, but before long every body had accepted the rules of the ship. Time did not hang heavily on their hands: tho women were instructed in knitting njld sewing, and tho men in carpentry. The children attended school. Thero were always available among tho emigrants men anil women who were competent to instruct the others, and thoy were paid for their services. Still, it must have been a dreary business in bad weather, when the tweendeck passengers were of necessity con fined to their quarters. Hero they would be huddled, perhaps for weeks at a time, cramped for space, and trying to find occupation in the dimly-lighted, narrow spaces. Thoy had to keep their quarters clean, and they did their own cooking. Ashore. Captain Munro held a position of some importance during the war—it was Commodore of Convoys, or something like that, and rendered services, for which he was decorated. Tho solemn dignity essential to his naval rank has not extinguished a very human delight in the pranks of his apprentice days. He relates without any signs of repentance how. he, with somo other apprentices, got on board a shunting engine ono evening in tho Port Chalmers railway yard. With tho youthful enthusiasm to seo wheels go round, one of them contrived to start the locomotive. Tho best endeavours of thom all to stop it led only to violent acceleration of pace. Into a tunnel they dashed, round tho shore of a small bay, and mercifully wero switched into a siding, whero their fiery r.teed came to a standstill against the stop buffers n at the end of tho line. They wero'suspected, but thero- was not enough evidence to take action. _ Their n».\t exploit ended less satisfactorily. Tho Port Navals had a battery of ancient guns, which wero placed in a commanding position on a hill outside tho town. Tho apprentices in port collected a miscellaneous but very effective bundle of fireworks from tho rocket lockers of their respective ships. They waked Port Chalmers with tho best fireworks display on record, and nearly set fire to the town J3ut the townsfolk showed no gratitude The boys were haled bofore a magistrate who had forgotten his own youth, and sentenced them to ten days' hard labour. Tho canny citizens of Dunedin were at that time using their short-term, hard labour prisoners to keep the public parks in trim. Young Munro and tho rest wero sent to tho Botanical Gardens, and, liberally branded with broad arrows, cleaned out tho duck ponds. Tho girls of Dunedin were not as hardhearted as its magistrate. They came during lunch hours to commiserate with the unfortunato maimers. Tho Iligh School girls managed to work tho oraclo and had the sentence roduced,.