LETTERS FROM A WANDERER

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1832, 17 April 1907, Page 31

LETTERS FROM A WANDERER

R..AI.S. Ruapehu, February 22:xd,. 1907. For five weeks we have been shaking on the deeptomorrow we are due at Teneriffe., and in a few more days at Plymouth. What jov it will be to feel solid earth beneath our feet.again and look at something else than sea! But wo have had a remarkably good passage on. the whole, considering tire ‘ season. Wo had not yet lost sight of •Wellington, however, when a chid wet wind met us*-and from then until we arrived at Monte Video we never had a pleasantly warm moment. 'the -winds did blow,” and big seas rose, sometimes roaring and leaping at us like 'hungry tigers, but more often sullenly and scornfully swaying and swinging to and fro, backwards and . forwards, While we pitched and tossed and rolled, and shuddered, but nevertheless 'kept steadily onward, even though one day we made only five knots an hour. And sometimes the skies.and sea were grey, sometimes blue, but always, whether the sun shone or the clouds rained, it was cold, cold—so 7 coldvthat arctic raiment was necessary, and we were all muffled up and looked twice our natural size in wool Unci fur. This cold weather was to some extent answerable for a sad event. In ‘the 'hospital there was a patient who left England in this-ship on her outward voyage full of hope, only twenty years of age, but suffering from a complaint which he hoped the fair climate of New Zealand would dispel. Those who sent him either did not know, or forgot the perilous changes of temperature that he must battle through before he. got there —first the suffocating heat of the tropics, and sthen the bitter winds and penetrating damp cold of the three weeks between Capetown, and New Zealand. Nor did they know that New Zealand refuses admittance to consumptives. And so when he arrived in Wellington in -a far worse condition than when he left Home, the authorities would not allow him to land, and he went round 'the »coast and started for Home, again still in the hospital, his hopes of the, health and (fortune awaiting him in " the far off country like a cold • flead. hand on i his heart. W© had been, about thirteen days at sea when he JWe .'made ;a .very small company m the saloon when we —in addition; officers only four ladies and three men. One of these men smoked! dried cabbage, -or something of that, ■-nature, so that we all -rejoiced •when, he--remained behind at ‘Monte Video., But -in -his :srtead we took on quite a! large number of passengers, and though some .would never be sadjy;. jjmssed, many -would, and all are at: jifeast passively agreeable. rAmong them *Mte a good- many .-Argentinas, or rather, ■ Muon s'Jmd -tiw H*pe»k very Ihfghly of ft he: country and its

it is not a poor man’s country, for living is very dear, and all labour is done by Italians, who can exist on half tho wages that FJnglishmen would need. But there are plenty of openings' for really experienced farmers, who can always get good billets when once they have overooino the language difficulty. The second saloon was invaded at Monte Video by a host of young Australians who had been teaching the Argentinians how to use patent reaping and other ••agricultural machines — ■the “Sunlight,”' tho “Marrow,” 'etc. They are on their way back to Australia, via Teneriffe and Hobart. They describe themselves as “a gang of gumsuckers, athletes to a man,” yet, oddly enough, and I should imagine for Tho first time in history, tho log of tho voyage records no sports, excepting and in both matches the Australians wore beaten by the ‘English team. The close, stifling heat since we: left •Monte Video -has probably been partly the reason for inaction. But instead of sports a really stupendous -concert programme, made up by .the united accomplishments of the whole ship, was successfully carried out one night. 'Wo are, in fact, unusually well olf for musical and histrionic talont, but —as all things must have a -/ but”—there is a corresponding lack of terp-sichorean ability. This is a good deal owing to the number of invalids among the ladies, 'there being only two in tho first saloon who are allowed to dance. Indeed in one sense this is very much a hospital ship, and the surgeon is a very much occupied man between -the patients who want his services as a physician, and others who demand them as a photographer. At cricket, too, lie is needed, and at cribbage lie is indispensable, so that the good man rarely has a free moment. But most of these illnesses are of long standing, and net severe enough to keep the sufferers from the table or the deck. In the second saloon .a somewhat serious spirit is dominant, and while wo have singing and acting they indulge in stirring debates. There was one on “Woman Suffrage,” another on “Farming in the Argentine as compared with New Zealand,”’ and so on. We boast a minor poet in each saloon, and their topical verses on the ship’s company were in turn- recited, to great applause, at the concert. But their best efforts, being of a. more personal nature, are circulated privately cnlv, for obvious reasons. One of these is an attempt to e nulate .Fitzgerald: and J o Gallienne, and was inspired by the normal health of our •worthy captain. “Wake, for tho Skipper, shepherd of the ship, H'«o got the gout, and maybe, too, the pip, And tis the Middle Watch, when danger’s near What shall we do if ill assault the ship ? The Night’s black bowl, a misty moon rides high, Tire Stars are lost within a far-off skv, But on the Bridge a future Captain strides—• Vi© need not fear—for watchful is His ewe l W-o are wondering now if the Jxaipara has commandeered all the cargo at Teneriffe, or left enough to give 11s a reasonable time in which to explore the island while it is being shipped. The Kaipara made a very good voyage to Monte Video, doing the journey in eighteen days eighteen hours. She took no passengers, but left them all for us, greatly to the disgust of some who particularly desired to travel in her. She had far better luck than we had, for we were a day late in reaching Monte Video, though we took the short cut through the Straits of Lemaire; and she passed in daylight six or seven icebergs, while we were denied the joy of snap-shotting •even one. And so she has probably pursued her triumphant way, cleared all the cargo, leaving none for us, and we will have to be content with a four or five hours’ stay ashore instead of the twelve to which we feel entitled. But no matter—-we will be so much the sooner in the beloved and blessed Motherland!