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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8413, 12 January 1899, Page 2

Mr David Anderson, manager of the Orient Company at Sydney, when spoken to on the subject by a Daily Telegraph representative, characterised the procedure as high handed. He regarded the summary action of the New Zealand Government as pressing hardly upon the men who have already reached Sydney, and upon those who had already sailed from Europe before any warning could reach them. He describes the Austrians as tine, upstanding men. " I particularly inquired about them on board when they arrived," he observed, " and learned that they were.a well conducted body of men. Our regret, is that sufficient notice was not given of the Act coming into operation to allow of our warning these people from shipping." Mr Lohmann, agent for the North_ German Lloyd's, takes pretty much the same view of the matter as Mr Anderson. "Thew. men," he stated, " are decent, quiet, sober, and able-bodied, among the best fellows, in fact, aboard our ships. They are reputedly very hard workers. In age they usually range between 22 and 3d. The only language they speak is the Slavonic. It is only that 1 pity the poor fellows that I have worked so hard on their behalf. They want to work and are not allowed, but left stranded in Sydney. Being country people, used to working on the soil, they are unfit for town life."