WELLINGTON.
By the Canterbury arid Phoebe, we have Wellington papers through' the" mail to the Ist instant, aud one by private hand, the ' Specta- * tor/of the 4th. , •' ' * - ;i? -
The Oliver Lang left for' Liverpool on Saturday, March 28th; we give elsewhere a list of her passengers and cargo in full. The day after the Oliver Lang left, the barque Ann Wilson, the third ship of the Black Ball Enterprise, arrived in Port Nioholson. By the accounts in the papers and the information we have received from some of her passengers and others/who have come down here, it appears : that this third ship is as complete a contrast to I the first as can well be imagined. Small, slow, [and unsuited for passenger * accommodation; 1 crowded, dirty, badly found, carelessly equipped i and officer as if at random; she has become a place of torment to her unhappy passengers, under the effects of which many have sunk and died. There appears to have been no epidemio on board nor any decided disease by which these people perished; they sank slowly in the absence of ordinary means of help, the victims of culpable neglect. The Ann Wilson is a barque of 432 tons ; she had on board 222 steerage passengers, besides the crew and cabin passengers, making in all 250 individuals. She wss 120 days out from Liverpool; 14 children, and 4 adults died on the passage, and one man immediately before landing. The inquest on the body of this man, held on Monday and Wednesday, the 30th of March, and Ist of April, exhibits the facts of the case. The Doctor of the ship was first examined. The two children of the deceased, Jonathan Deßerell, died six weeks before him. In his • attention to them he caught a severe cold. " At this time there was no medicine available for his case, and we were entirely out of medical comforts. I had not even proper diet for a patient in his state. It was impossible for me under these circumstances to perform my duty. Had . there been any chance oi* recovery, I could not have assisted." Deßerell died in harbour from 'excessive exhaustion.' 'The Medical comforts had to be sparingly used from the first, and were quite done before the end of the voyage. The allowance of water was very short. The provisions were sometimes bad, and always insufficient. The medicine chest provided and passed by the Emigration Officer did not contain the medicines in general use, and the useless ones in veiy small proportions. " I consider the vessel to have been unwarrantably overcrowded, and that it was one of the causes of some of the deaths on board." The next witness, Captain Sharp, Emigration Officer, at Wellington, in his evidence says,— I have been on board to-day, and made a cursory survey of the. vessel; I' find the height between deck and deck to be 6 feet. There are five openings in the decks, two are large openings, and the others are made expressly for the ■ purpose of; venti--lation. The bunks .are also fitted as required by law. The upper deck appeared to be very much encumbered, which .appears to me to be ,contrary to ihe provisions of the Passengers Act, The vessel has no side pr stern ventilators ; -the only ventilation is through the openings in the decks; I do not consider the after part of the ship sufficiently ventilated ; the emigrants must have suffered very much during the warm weather from the want of ventilation. Complaints have been made to me by about seventy passengers of the insufficiency of food, water, and accommodation, applying, I believe, ■ more particularly to the cooking. Dr. Johnson, of Wellington, who made a post mortem examination of the body, gives it as his opinion that the deceased died of exhaustion which might have been prevented by proper nourishment or removed by stimulants, none of which were at hand.
The next witness, Richard Okey, was brotherintlaw of the deceased, and his evidence, being a passenger, is interesting, He describes the progress of the. illness of deceased :— *| About nine days before his death he complained of a headache, the following day he complained that he was no better, and had a sore' throat. The next day he complained of being worse; he stated that he believed he had taken a very bad cold in standing at the galley waiting his turn to cook his provisions. Sometimes we had to wait 5 or 6 hours to take ..our. turn at the galley in cooking; this occurred during the whole of the voyage, so that we seldom had our meals regularly There were two cooks employed, one for night and one for day; there was no regularity in getting our meals, the food was frequently badly cooked, "and at other times so dirty, that we could not eat it. I believe the proper hours were—for breakfast, 8 o'clock, 1 o'clock for dinner, and 6 o'clock for tea; we seldom got our meals regularly ; we
frequently had our breakfast at the dinner hpur, the dinner, at tea, time, and we then went to bed without our tea." He says that the provisions were according to the scale in the contract ticket but a good deal was bad. Of the water he says,—•' When we left England, we had a quart of water a day; this was. for every purpose except for tea. I got, I corisider, about three pints,'including.tea water; about once in three or four days we had fresh water for cooking our peas. When we got into hot weather crossing the line; we complained to the captain of the small allowance of .water, and he gave us another pint; this would make 2 quarts. I think this continued about five weeks, when we were again reduced to. a quart. This lasted to within a few days of our reaching New Zealand, when we got a pint." The captain and'doctor were very attentive to deceased,1 he says, and did what they could for him and others. They met an American whaler a little south of the line, and asked for water. Casks of water were brought alongside, but owing to a disagreement between the captain of the Ann Wilson and the mate of the whaler they were not sent on board. The cap. tain, he believed, was drunk at the time.
The wife of the deceased was then examined. She described her husband's illness. The doctor had no wine or beer to give, which she thought would have supported him; and there were no medicines to be had, except a draught of pepper, ginger, and spice. , ' , The Chief Officer of the Ann Wilson spoke of the short allowance of water. They got po« tatoes from the whaler near the line. ■ They were promisedjwater but did not/get it. The ship was hove to but drifted a??ay from the boats. The captain was sober at the time. The Purser was the next witness. He was appointed by Baines and Co j— t( Somewhere about the -line there were complaints about the, shortness of water. The water was stowed in the hold. We' had thrqe or four casks of water on board when we came into harbour. I know the regular allowance for emigrants is-three quarts a day; I know they had less. There was no loaf sugar in the mcdi* cal comforts; there was only brown sugar for the medical man to mix up his medicines with. After leaving Liverpool a smaller allowance of water was served out than the emigrants were ■entitled to, because I suspected there was not enough water on board; I did sq on my own responsibility. Barnes's clerk ordered me to be very careful of the water; it was a verbal order. Now I think of it, the captain, immediately on starting, did give me instructions to serve out.a less quantity of water than the proper allowance. I do not think the captain had any means of knowing what quantity of water was on board any more than I had." Another passenger who had been, at sea before spoke to particulars j— " The provisions were irregularly served out. At one time they did not get dinner till 6 p.m. The ventilation aft was bad. The hospitals were very offensive. The provisions were badly stowed. The water for tea was short. They complained to the captain and asked him to put in at the Cape. He refused. The captain was drunk when th.c mate of the whaler was on board," . The oook said that the cooking, apparatus was , only sufficient for sixty persons. A passenger, who helped to cook, used to serve the water out, .He received and gave short allowances. The Captain's evidence is as follows, in fulL;-r Isaac Rutherford—l am master of the barque Ann Wilson j I have been io command of her two years and a half; when the water was first put on board I was not aware that it was deficient in quantity; the passage according to the Act is 15Q days, and I expected there were sufficient provisions and water for that time; the ship belongs to Robert and Joseph Wilson, of South Shields, and is chartered by Messrs. James Baines. When north of the Line the carpenter represented to me that several of the casks had leaked out, and it was more, from fear and forethought on my part than actual 'knowledge of any great deficiency that I ordered the water to be reduced ; I knew from about three weeks after we left Liverpool that the passengers' were not getting their full allowance of water ; the passengers spoke to me about putting into some port, and I tried to make Tristan d'Acunha,butthe weather was too thick; the doctor applied to me for extras beyond the medical comforts put on board ; he had what he asked for'; on the Sunday morning of DeverelPs death, I visited him with the doctor; the doctor cleared his tpngue, and Mrs. Deverell stated that sjia had given her husband a little brandy and water, but that the brandy was nearly done ; she. said she had brought
the brandy with her. There is * still arrowroot remaining in charge of the steward belonging to Tne medical comforts,which the doctor could havehadif lie had asked for it.; Irgavethe ship's, cook- directions to make arrowroot or gruel at any time for the sick. I received the medicine chest sealed from the Emigration' Officer; I expected it would contain sufficient medicine for the number of passengers I had on board-; the doctor was not enabled to open the chest until he got to sea; ■ I believe he was told not to open it until then by the Emigration Officer ; I supplied the doctor frequently with medicine from my "private medicine-chest. I complained .to the doctor on account of passengers not being contented about the supply of medicine, but he.denied that he had neglected them ;. the doctor was employed by Messrs. J. Baines.By the Jury—There were plenty of medical comforts and provisions until a short time before our arriving. at New Zealand; the water casks were second-hand ; they were made of hard wood staves and soft wood ends; I took charge of the water out of the purser's hands because he was incapable of performing his duty; the doctor had no private medicine cßest; it was about ten days after leaving Liverpool when I placed the water under charge of the carpenter. I did not give the purser orders [to shorten the allowance of water ; the reason why the arrowroot was not in the hospital was that there was not room ; it was placed in the cabin for safety; we have found the arrowroot since coming into harbour; I did not know of it before. The Jury, after a deliberation of more than two hours, returned the following verdict :— " That the deceased Jonathan Deverell, after an attack of diarrhoea, died from exhaustion, accelerated by the following causes :— " A short supply of water during the whole voyage, the want of proper medicines and medical comforts, the inadequacy of the cooking accomodation, the bad ventilation of the vessel, Ann Wilson; and the Jury hold the Captain and charters culpable for the same.
" The jury further record their opinion that great neglect attaches to the Emigration • Officer at the port of Liverpool, for pot seeing a sufficient supply of water, medicines, medical comforts, and sugar, Avere put on board. They also consider the Captain much to blame for not putting'in at the Cape of Good Hope or other port for supplies of aforementioned articles, when he knew the vessel was so badly supplied with them." The Court was very much crowded throughout the whole of the day. The proceedings lasted until a late hour in the evening, Some of the passengers by the Ann Wilson', it is stated, would bring the circumstances of the above case under the cognizance of the law. The above particulars are summarised from the Spectator of the Ist and 4th of April. Oub Meat Sotplt.—The Slaughter House returns for the six months commencing on the 22nd September, 1856, and ending on the 22nd instant, shows a consumption of 390 beeves, 2190 sheep, 73 calves, and 60 pigs, of an average per week of 15 beeves", 84 sheep, 3 calves, and 2J pigs. The facilities for keeping live stock in the town are so limited that any supply in excess of the consumption must result in a loss both to the grower and butcher, —this not unfrequently happens to a large extent, the market being often glutted and at other times extremely bare. tVe should think it would pay well to enclose paddocks for the temporary depasture at the Hutt—the grazier would be in a better position to avail himself of the highest market price, and the loss in weight to the butcher, from having to keep them for a period on short commons, would thus be avoided.— Independent, March 28fch.
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Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 463, 11 April 1857, Page 8
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2,333WELLINGTON. Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 463, 11 April 1857, Page 8
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