DETENTION OF THE STEAMER VICTORIA.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 329, 2 July 1875, Page 3

DETENTION OF THE STEAMER VICTORIA.

It was stated recently that this vessel had been detained in Loudon in consequence of the failure of the company to which she belonged. An exchange gives the following particulars: — The Australian Direct Steam Navigation Comnauy, formed for the purpose of running vessels to do the voyage in forty-five days, is in difficulties, and a petition is to be heard on the 15th May for winding 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 the Act allowed. The complainants, who are residents at Bordeaux, had commercial transactions at Melbourne, and in consequence desired to proceed there. They accordingly booked their passages at Bordeaux, and were to have sailed from London on the 27th February; but before that day arrived the company wrote to the 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 London bn the 18 th of March they were informed that the vessel

would not be able to sail before the sth 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 £2O 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 could not be got ready, and that, although the company thought the demands of the complainants too high, they would nevertheless submit to any order the Court might make. After some conversation it was found necessary to withdraw the summons, and take out another under the 73rd section of the Passengers Act, and in the result an order was made upon the company to return to each of the complainants hia passage money, and £2O compensation for the breach of contract referred to above. In the course of the same day seven other passengers applied for assistance under precisely similar circumstances. Most of them were needy people who had come from different parts of England and Ireland, and had paid from £l2 to £33 for their passages. An agent of the company had allowed them subsistence money 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. ‘‘ln 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 the 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 Victoria;— “ Outside the office were crowds of workmen, who had been employed on the ship, demanding wages. The only answer they got was that the clerk had gone to the bank for the money, but had not returned. Passengers were continually coming to the office demanding their passage money back, and boarding house keepers with bills. In one boarding house there are thirty passengers, all the little they had brought to London with them gone, and a large bill due in the boarding house, which they are unable to pay. I have seen a good deal of life, having spent twelve years in New Zealand and the Australian colonies. I have seen men under the pressure of difficulties 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 death. I have witnessed men in connection with the Victoria laying their heads in their hands, and, with faces that did too truly tell their inward agony, calling out, ‘ Oh ! what shall 1 do if I can’t get my money back ? My poor wife and family 1’ Large families have been living for weeks past; their little all is gone in keeping them, I have seen large families of Germans, who have left their Fatherland to escape the terrors of conscription, come to the office of the Australian Direct Steam Naviga - tion Company. They could not speak English, but understood quite enough to know and feel their position. There were families here from Ireland and Scotland. One Scottish family has paid over £l3O in passage money. Individually, I suffer in another shape. I have got about £SOO worth of perishable goods packed and ready for the voyage, to have gone on the 20th March. They are Dutch cargo in the shape of valuable plants, which, as I have been in the nursery trade, would, if got safely out, be a great boon to the colonics.”