DISCIPLINE IN IMMIGRANT SHIPS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 221, 2 September 1875, Page 4

DISCIPLINE IN IMMIGRANT SHIPS.

The following is from the N. Z. Times of Monday last: — Captain Louttit, of the ship Rodney, courteously afforded us ao opportunity of witnessing the very complete discipline which be hns been enabled, by rare tact and firtnnesSj to carry out on board his ship. At ten o'clock the Immigration Officer, accompanied by the. Harbormaster and BHveral other gentlemen, boarded the vessel, and after some preliminary »r---raugeoient bad been disposed of, the roll of the single girls was read ovt>r, the young women ranging themselves on the port eide of the ship. Aft«r the single women, the married couples and then tbe single men passed in review before the Immigration Officer, the surgeon-auperintendtnt, and tbe Health Officer. AH the immigrnnta appenred to be in excellent health and spirits, and expressed their cordial appreciation of the manner in which . tbeir comforts had been attended to by tbe captain and tbe surgeon-superin-tendent. The necessary routine being disposed of, the Immigration Officer wag conducted by tbe captain over the whole of the ship devoted to passenger accommodation, and the visitors were struck with the extreme cleanness of all tbe arrangements, which was obviously tbe principal cause of tbe healthiness of the passengers during tbe voyage. As was intimated in our issue of yesterday, the captain now seized the opportunity of showing to his visitors what can be done in the way of disciplining immigrants in what is called the fire-drill and boat-exercise. The order was accordingly given for tbe ringing of tbe fire-bell, immediately on hearing which the passengers took tbeir respective places at the pumps, the bose was got in rendiness, the buckets were manned, and everything was ready for deluging tbe ship with water. As, however, some of the visitors expressed their entire approval of tbe drill up id this point without its fruition in a copious rush of water, this latter was dispensed with, and it is to be hoped that the need may never arise on the good ship Rodney for the cerrying out in etern earnest of the fire-drill. The order was then given to man the boats, and iv a very short time each boat was filled with its complement of meu, each individual securing a reliable life-belt to his shoulders, and then came the order to lower the hosts, which order was promptly carried out. The disastrous fate of the ship Cospatrick, with its human freightage of hundreds of emigrants, has written in terrible characters a protest; ooce for all agatust the neglect of tbe precautions which have been so wisely and efficiently carried out in tbe Rodney. For in that case, as our readers will recollect, as many or more lives were lost by drowninv as deaths by sufiocation in the burning ship. But apart from tbe actual necessity for instituting these precautionary measures on shipboard, and especially on board an emigrant ship, there is tbie further advantage, that the discipline gives employment to the emigrants, thus enabling them to escape from the ennui which evertakes an indolent life on board ship.