AROUND THE WORLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 922, 22 June 1903, Page 2

AROUND THE WORLD.

BY A YOUNG NEW ZEALANDER. No. 111. AT CAPETOWN. In the morning wo are to draw out into the bay, and expect to get clear nf tho port some time during the afternoon—our next stage is the run round to A : goa Bay . about 400 miles.

The jamb of shipping in Cape Town Docks is not quite so bad as it was when we were here last November, but it is bad

enough, there is not r spare berth anywhere; ships anchor in ihe bay and await their turn to get alongside, first come, first served. Only vessels on Government service take precedence of all, aud tho Union Castle Company have a right-oil-way as mail boats, all others take their turn. We are lying in a mail steamer’s berth, aud are working cargo night and day, Sunday and all, to be out of tho way when she arrives iu the mormug. Even if not finished, we have to get out of tho road, a mere cargo boat counts not at all. The mail steamers are magnificent vossels, their time from hero to Southampton is only 17 days (.1 havo received letters hero on the 18th day after posting ik Scotland), they arc fitted out on tho style of the Union Company’s best steamers mngnitiowif ly. Just across front

us as I write now is the Norman, spiendid specimen of a steams:,,,t two days ago, on our other sul ,wa

tilt- Walmer Castle ; next, In mi !ay the Bracmar Castle, all doublefiinuel, three-deckers, painted tight' gtey aud white, as spick and span as if ,just brand new. We find tho weather here on the verge of winter.

quite cool, and at night even chilly ; plenty of rain, too. Talk about our Auckland city roads ! The growlers should sec the Capetown mud belorc they decry our streets too much.

Like Auckland, too, the dust. Hies iu clouds on a dry, windy day. I have been a good hit about. the town; it is just a mixture ot every nationality under the sun that makes up the population—Greeks, Italians, Hindoos, Chinese, Alalays, etc., etc., and the Kaffir everywhere. After seeing, and bearing, 1 have concluded that" Capetown is not a desirable place of abode. On our last trip, we brought out. a young married collide as passengers ; 1 met them here again, and spent an evening with them, and obtained considerable inhumation as to their experiences.

They lirst “ boarded ” until they could look round and see how to settle in a home of their own—he was an expert mechanic from Canada. In two different places they paid twelve pounds per month for board and lodging, washing and everything else being extra. The husband had come under an agreement to receive six pounds per week. The first week lie found that the amount was not enough, and lie got seven pounds per week straight away on applying. They arc now renting two rooms in a new house about a mile and a half Loin the city’s centre, up on the hillside, for six pounds per month, and of course provision themselves. Their rooms are upstairs ; there is no fireplace in either—the cookiwg is done with a gas-stove—there is a verandah, and nothing else for the money. Gisborne people complain of the high rents charged, hut these facts should convince them that in this respect they can he beaten elsewhere. The house has six rooms ; three tenants live in it, having two each. To be able to get these rooms they had to take them before they were finished, and it was only as a favor that the landlord granted possession. The couple I refer to arc not “ new chums ” ; they have been married over four years, and have lived in various cities in Canada ; ho is a Glasgow man, and has travelled the world. As lie states, houses can be got cheaper, hut they have no sanitary arrangements, and you have Kaffirs all around you—and I ear easily understand how undesirable that would he. Prices here aiu extortionate; it is a crime Do be poor. Only Kaffirs may b cf that, apparently. On enquiry, I find engineers are only gelling 10s per day - the Auckland rate ; how they live 1 don’t know. From the papers, I see that in Johannesburg wages run from 15s to 21s per day for masons, builders, etc., but I also find that everything costs in proportion. It is no white man’s country this—that is, no working white man’s. The niggers are too many for any white man to compete with ; cheap and nasty. I reckon an everyday, working man is ten times better off in the Old Country than in this. It is all very well to read of the high wages, but you don’t read of tho r>-nts, and food and clothing prices, and you want to sec the conditions to appreciate the whole. 1 must go on and get this letter ready for the pest. Our movements are so uncertain, wc have to he prepared for leaving a week before we actually move. We lie out at anchor in this port ; there are no docks, no wharves, no shelter of any kind ; the c richer simply gc.es down off the land. The shipping is arranged in a sort of system of lines ; plenty of room allowed for swinging between the separate vessels. As before, wc have to wait our turn ; there are more vessels than lighters. We have rew lain here eight days, and have sent but one lot of cargo ashore—urgent, perishable stuff from the cold chamber. Another week may easily pass by here ; hut we never know., Ncne of us like being here much; our iLual sea-watches go on, and it gets very tedious. Steam on main boilers all the time ; nothing done hut it must be finished off at one sitting —for fear the wind should come in. from the sea and the engines be wanted. Durban is better in this way ; you may ride at anchor outside for a time waiting a berth, hut once inside the vessel is in smooth water, and tugs powerful enough to shift anything are there to move her if necessary. Also, at Durban, we can get ashore in our o? time ; can come and go as we

please ; while in Algna Bay the tender comes ofl three times a day, and if you miss her you have a wait of four hours—very nice, if you wflnt to buy a penny stamp and come back again.