DETENTION OF THE STEAMER VICTORIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4166, 25 June 1875, Page 3

DETENTION OF THE STEAMER VICTORIA.

It will be reirenibered that a short time since a statement appeared in our telegrams to the effect that the 'steamer Victoria had been detained in London owing to the Company having collapsed. The Taranaki Hsrald has the following on the subject:— The Australian Direct Steam Navigation Compan3r, formed for the purpose of running vessi-1-3 to do the voyage in 45 days, i(> in difficulties, and a petition is to be heard on the loth of May for winking up the concern. The other day two foreigners, named Ernest Passacantando and Louis Serizico, summoned the Company before Alderman Figgins at Guildhall for the return of their passage money, and the expenses allowed for subsistence money during the delay which occurred since the day on which the Victoria had been advertised to sail, and also for such other sums as tbe Act allowed. The complainants, who are residents at B irdeaux, had commercial transactions at Melbourne, and in conse.pience desired to proceed there. They accordinglybooked tlieir passajiesat Bordeaux, and were to have sailed from London on the 27th February ; but befoie that day arrived the Company wrote to tlw complainants that the Victoria would not be able to start until the 20th of March. At great inconvenience they stayed at home during that period, and for that they claimed no compensation ; but when they arrived in Loudon on the ISth. of March they were informed that the vessel would not be able to sail before the oth of April, and now it was uncertain when she would start. Under these circumstances they claimed 20s per day for subsistence money, and under the 73rd section of the Act they claimed £20 each for compensation for the loss they had sustained by their detention on the journey. It was explained that the delay took place in consequence of the strike on the Tyne, in consequence of which the vessel cou:d not be got ready, and that, although the Company thought the demands of the complainant* too high, they would nevertheless submit to any order the Court might make. After some conversation it was fouud necessary to withdraw the summons, and take out another under the 73=-d sectiou of the Passengers Act, and in the result an order was made upoa the Company to return to each of the complainants his passage money, and £20 compensation for the breach oi contract referred to above. In the course of the same day seven other passengers applied for assistance under precisely simil r circumstances. Most of them were needy people who had come from different parts of England and Ireland, and had paid from £12 to £33 for their passages. An agent of the company had allowed them sub-sistence-monr-y up to the day previous to this application, and, as that had been discontinued, they asked the worthy alderman what they were to do, as they were far away from home, destitute, and with starvation staring them in the face. In the result the alderman gave them 10s each from the poorbox, and handed them over to the City Emigration Agent to see what he could do for them. It transpired in the course of tbe inquiry " that the company was, or would be soon, in liquidation, as their offices were shut up." Mr A. Goldie, late of Auckland, gives the following description of a scene he witnessed in connection with the Victoiia :— " Outside the office were crowds of workmen, who had been employed on the ship, demanding wages. The only answer they got was thas the ch'rk had gone to the bank for the money, but had not returned. P^s. sengers were continually coming to tbe office demanding their passage-money back, and

I fcorrding-honss keepers? with b lis. In one | braiding-house there are thirty passengers, all the little they had bi ought to London with tfrem gone, and a laigo bill duo in the boardi ug'house, which they art unable to pay. J. hare seen a good deal of life; having ■Ejjenfc twelve years in New Zealand and.the Australian Colonies. I have seen men iradfiT the pressing of cliilii.-ulties over which they had no control, madly take away their own lives, the brain giving way. Many a man, rather than tell to others the pressure bearing on him, prefers tteath. I have witnessed men iv connection with tbe Victoria laying their heada in their hands, and, with faces that did too truly tell their inward agony, calling out, 'Oh ! whafc sliall I do if I can't get my mon°y back ? My poor wife and family !' Large families havebeen living for weeks past; their little all is g«ne in keeping Shem I have seen largo families of Germans, who have Itffc fc' eir fatherland to escape the terrors of the conscription, come to the office of the Austta'ian Direcfc Steam Navigation Company. Tliey could not speak English, but understood quite enough 'to know and f-el their position. Th-re. were families here from Ireland and Scotland. One Scottish family has paid over £130 in passage money. individually, I suffer in another shape. I have got about £500 wortli of perishable goods packed and i eaiiy for the voyage, to have gone on the 20th March. They are Dutch caigo in the shape of vain able plants, which, as I have bten in the nursery trade, would, if got safely oufc, be a great boon to the Colonic ."

Str/x«ers paying <i -isit to uiuieum are ofteu at a loss to know whicli is the best estabUshment to visit for the purchase of drapery and ctothiug. Herbert, Haynes, and Co. offer special advantages to tlie public that can be met with nowhere else in the city. They keep at all tiroes the largest and best assorted stock of every class of goods, imported direct from the leading oiaiiufaeturers aud warehousemen at home, which, being bought entirely upon cash terms, they are enabled to offer goods of such sterling value as cannot be equalled by any other house in tiie trade. Everj' article in stock is marked at a fixed price for reidy money, from which no abatement is ever made, so that the most inexperienced buy their g-oods at the same price as the best judges. Their terms are—net cash, without discount or reduction of any kind. • A fuller description o their stock will be found in an advertistimfiiit in the lirst mure of this nan«r.—TA.OVT.