The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1889. FEEDING POOR JACK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2316, 28 December 1889, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1889. FEEDING POOR JACK.

Those who are old enough to remember "the fifties" will have a lively recollection of the indignation which was aroused m England when it was discovered that m the early part of the campaign m the Crimea the British forces lost more men and horses through blundering mismanagement on the part of the authorities and thorough-paced rascality on the part of the army contractors than by the bullets of tb.3 enemy. The men were clothed with shoddy and shod with paper'- soled boots, which speedily left them half sheltered from the piercing cold, and rendered them lame from frostbite, while much of the provender supplied to the horses, instead of being best compressed hay, was found to be the mdst veritable rubbish, and even such as was not was on occasion bound up m store with bands of red tape harder to break than bars of Steel, and while correspondence was passing to and fro to the Horse Guards to determine as to whose right it was to issue it, the horses, for lack of more natural provender, were literally eating the hair off one another's tails. Since then we have often read of the issue of bayonets which double up like pin wire, and of sabres which snap like carrots, yet, despite commissions of enquiry and a public outcry now and then, the same sort of rascality and incompetence appears still to flourish. The latest scandal m this direction has just been exposed m relation to the food supplied to the Navy. " The sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, to take care of the life of poor Jack," appears to have sadly neglected his duty, but happily a terrestrial agency haß come to the rescue m the person of that well-known friend of the sailor, Mr Samuel Plimsoll. Hay ing accomplished much towards doing away with the shameful practice of overloading and the murderous system of sending to sea unseaworthy, and rotten, but heavily insured, vessels, Mr Plimsoll has turned his attention to the investigation of the manner m which our sailors are fed And he has made some very sensational discoveries indeed. Speaking at Swansea the other day he detailed, amid cries of " shame," how some years ago " the condemned stores of meat, some of which had been at Gibraltar and Malta! for seven years, weie Bold by the Admiralty at Deptford. This meat gtank frightfully ; but it was taken out of the barrels, carefully washed m water, scraped, and pared when scraping was , cot enough, and then put into new; barrels with new brine, and branded ' Best Navy Storeß,' and sold by scoundrels as food for sailors." And he went on to show that the same murderous provisioning was still going on m various directions, stating that he had " received from the Consul at San Francisco, to whom he had written about two vessels, a reply, dated only the 12th of last month, m which he said that one ship left England with twenty-five men on board, One after another died from eating this carrion, till only thirteen were left, and out of the remaining thirteen only three could stand, the others, when the vessel got off the port, being only able to crawl about the deck. Their limbs were swollen to the size of a child's body, their gums were black, and their teeth falling out, because for long months these men had been condemned to eat that abominable carrion to save the owner of the ship a few pounds' expenses. The surviving thirteen men were taken ashore, and into the hospital, where one died; and the others recovered gpeedily on having good wholesome food. Another ship wept to the same port a short time after, and eight of the crew had died on the ship from the same cause." Mr Plimsoll went on to say "when this practice came under his notice he obtained from Parliament a return of the purchasers of this carrion, and threatened that when the next lot of condemned meat came to be sold by the Government at Deptford he would buy it himself and divide it into lots and send portions to the private house of every member. With that object he sent a man to Deptford , but when the auctioneer came to the beef and pork he informed those present that the lots were withdrawn, But, fearing the Government might recommence the sale of the carrion, he (Mr Plimsoll) had recently made inquiries at the Victualling Department of the Admiralty, and H.* 8 i n f° rme d that the meat was now soiu to P°*P boilers, that it waß sent to a very respectable firm at Batterjsea for £1 a ton for the beef 2nd £5 a ton for the pork. But he wished to know what security the Victualling Department had that the meat was npt used for other purposes, and the only reply he could get was that the buyers were a most respectable firm . He would not say a single word against them, but he objected to having the matter dependent on the character of a fiim. At this sale to the soap-boilers referred to 51,2191 b had been sold as unfit for human food, while 22,4701 b were sold as fit for human food. He asked the official why the meat was sold if it was fit for food. He was informed that it had been two or three years, perhaps, m barrel, and if the authorities served it on the home naval stations the doctors would not give it out, and if they sent it to the distant stations it was a question whether it would be allowed to land." "Then why," questioned Mr Plimsoll, "do you sail it as food V' " Oh," was the reply, "it i& good enough." Mr Plimsoll proceeded to say that " he objected to that, and next session (and Dr Cameron was going to help him) he should insist that all of the returned stores that was ' fit for human food ' should be eaten by the men who bought it. All this food ought to be treated m the way condemned meat waß dealt with at Bmithfield— cut into j pieces and thrown into » vat of creosote. ( so that, while it was rendered unfit £o bjb eaten, it wo b none the worse for soap #nd candlemakers." Mr Pliasoll is quite right, aad it may be depended upon tiisi if he doep not succeed m preventing the repetition of the gross sbandal'he has espoj?ed it will not he his fault.