STEERAGE PASSAGES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 177, 26 August 1878, Page 2

STEERAGE PASSAGES.

(By a Steerage Passenger.) It must have occurred to anyone who has travelled much by steamer round the coasts of this colony, that, of the saloon passengers, a very large proportion were people who in EDglish or Transatlantic steamers would undoubtedly have gone in the second cabin ; people whose social status was not such as to make them desirous of mixing intimately with the wealthiest classes in the community, and whose pecuniary resources were not so abundant as to make them wholly indifferent to the additional cost of a saloon ticket. Seryant girls going to their places, mechanics and working men with their wives, and others who were changing their residence, not for pleasure or business, but because matters had not gone well with them, and they thought they might better themselves by a change, form a large proportion of the saloon passengers. It had often struck me with surprise that so many of these classes should travel in the saloon. It did not occur to me that I myself might hr.ve to do what I wondered they did not, but the res anyusta domi, and some little determination to show that I too could " rough " it when needful, made me take a steerage passage in the Wakatipu from Sydney to Wellington. The experience was healthy and amusing; the company was quite as good and as well mannered as— it might with truth be said better mannered than—that usually to be found in the saloon, and the hardships to be endured were trivial to a man in vigorous health, and accustomed to travel. It is from no wish to whine that 1 desire to point out the deficiencies in the service, but simply because, comparing the |

accommodation given with the price paid, and looking also at the accommodation provided at a less cost on other lines, I have no hesitation iu saying, as a traveller who has visited all the four quarters of the globe, and crossed the Atlantic eight times, that the charge is most exorbitant, and that steerage passengers have a right to complain of being unfairly treated. Moreover, sua si bora norint, if the directors oi these colonial companies knew their own interests, they would encourage steerage passengers by every means iu their power. They would by so doing very largely increase the number of travellers, and the dividends of the Company, and would be able to do so at a, very .slight additional cost. The passage from Sydney to Wellington is a five days' passage; the fare by the saloon is .£lO, aud by steerage £5 10s, thus averaging £2 a day by the saloon, and .£1 2s a day for the steerage. The saloon accommodation is fair, the table fairly good) equal to a sedond class New Zealand hotel, but not equal to the Empire at Wellington or the Criterion in Dunedin— as they used to be a few years ago— and not approaching to that on the P.andO. Steamers or the Royal West India mail steamers, or the Canard line. The cabins are miserably small aud crowded, and, when full, the occupants must get up one by one, as two cannot dress afc the same time. A saloon passage by one of the lines just named does not cost any more, and in some cases much less thau by the Wakatipu. The Steerage, tfr second class saloon, is situated aft, and is as good as anything of the kind need be, It is. true that the men's .berths are all in one cabin partitioned off the saloon; buttm's does not muoli matter for such a short passage, as whether there are three or a dozen others in the same cabin is not of much consequence for five days. The ladies' cabin (lam speaking of the steerage) is sihall and utiebmfortably close, as all the ladies' cabins in the saloons of New Zealand steamers are. It is strange to find that the most wretched accommodation on board these colonial steamers is invariably that given to the ladies, who as ii rule suffer most .from sea-sickness. The bunks are supplied with a mattress and pillow of flock) the outer covering of my mattress was very dirty, and that of the pillow filthy. But .these things came out with the ship from England, aud there being no blankets or sheets, it is not to be wondered at tb,at the mattresses got dirty. The steward, who is a really good little fellow, very kind and obligiug, lent me an old slatecolored blanket, which, as the weather was not cold, sufficed. I ought to have ascertained that sheets and blankets were tlot supplied before embarking, but not having before travelled in the steerage, I never thought about it. There were no towels, of course, nor any soap, and we were obliged to wash ourselves on deck, iu a tin bucket. Here, again, I must confess my obligations to the steward, who ou the third day of the voyage, after we had had time to get acquainted, allowed me to wash in his cabin, and lent me soap. Now there were fixed washsttinds iu the saloon— two on each side— but these are not allowed to be used by steerage passengers. The meals are ample in quantity, and good in quality; meat, potaioes, and coffee for breakfast; soup, vegetables, and meat for dinner, with plum duff on Sundays; cold meat and tea at tea time; bread and butter ad libitum at breakfast and diuner. On the list day of the Voyage we were indulged with pickles. But why, oh why, do they serve the meals up in such a hoggish style? Does any one in these colonies except a man " on the wallaby," eat and drink out of tiu ware? Is there any working man, however poor, who does not have an earthenware plate and dish, teacup and saucer, &c? Is there any one who does not have some sort of cloth on his table ? Is there any one who cannot afford teaspoons, one at least to each cup, and one for the sugar ? We had three or four iron tablespoons stuck upright iu the tin pannikin of sugar, and we stirred our tea with them in succession, taking our chances of some one having inadvertently put the spoon in his mouth. Why was there no milk? Beautiful preserved milk .can be had iu Sydney at ten peuce a tin retail — Surely a tia a day would not have injured the Company. Now in Sydney you can get quite as good meals as we had on board the Wakatipu, with the addition of pudding at dinner, and tea too if you want it, served up in something like a decent fashion, for sixpence a meal. The style on hoard these steamers is only used at Home in gaols and workhouses. I know no Othfer institutions where tinware and three-pronged steel forks and no table cloths are used. Now supposing every passenger broke a plate, a cup and saucer and a tumbler every passage, and it was not found out and he was not made to pay for them (a most improbable supposition), still the Company could very well afford to pay for them out of the charges made. For five days meals at Is 6d per day deduct 7s 6d from .£5 10s, which leaves 2s 6d for breakage and the washing of table cloths, sheets, and a pillow case, and then the company gets £5 clear for the run. There ought to be puddings provided daily considering the [number of women and children carried, and milk as aforesaid, also some sauces and pickles; these additions would bring the dietary up to the level of the sixpenny Sydney meals, A pair of sheets, a pair of blankets, and a pillow case ought to be provided, and means for washing in the saloon. These are all the additions needful to make the steerage accommodation on board this steamer a« good as it need be But on board the Wellington, and the coasting steamers generally, there are no mattresses nor pillows, and the bunks are ranged round the cabin open to the gaze of everybody. The bunks are three deep, and there are thirty-nine in the small forecabin. The cabin itself was filthily dirty, the floor looked as if it had not been washed for a week, aud spat upon copiously in the intervals. Smoking was allowed in the cabin iu the Wellington, but not in the Wakatipu. The food was very good and very wall cooked, but the steward was neither so civil nor so obliging as the one on the Wakatipa, and smoking down below ought to be prohibited on account of the ladies and sea sick people. Ou the Wellington we did not get even tin buckets to wash in, but I was told when I asked the steward about washing utensils, -' Oh ! go up on deck, and you'll find a bucket about somewhere." Fortunately a good-natured sailor lent me a bucket, which he had secured for his own ablutions, and also a piece of soap. Now for three meals such as above described— ls 6d, and the privilege of sleeping on a hard board, and using a bucket of fresh water, when I could get it, I had to pay thirty-shillings— the fare from Wellington to Nelson. The price i3 absurd. There is not an hotel in New Zealand, as far as I know, which charges more than 10 s a day, and the rent, servants' wages, and other expenses of such hotels as the Empire at Wellington, are quite equal to those of a boat like the Wellington. The fact is our coasting service is a practical monopoly, aud it will not be until the railways are completed throughout that we shall get the accommodation we have a right to expect for the. money we pay. There seems to be no ratio between the steerage and saloon fares in the same company's boats. The saloon fare to Nelson is £2 (for ten hours' run), and the steerage 30s or threefourths. On the passage from Sydney it is little more than one-half. Another thing steerage passengers have to complain of is the way that their part of the deck is lumbered up by deck cargo. lam sure that both on the Wakatipu and the Wellington the clear deck space allowed by Act of Parliament was encroached on. In the Welling-

ton we had two carts with shafts fixed, leaving us no space to walk about. In the Wakatipu we had an immense number of oranges, and a whole menagerie of animals besides. In the second-class saloon there were about two dozen cockatoos and some other birds. What with cockatoos; barking poodle dogs, and babies, there was not much peace and quietness at night. Babies must be endured, but why should we be pestered with cockatoos, laughing jackasses, aud poodles ? Why should they take up our airspace, and make night hideous with their barking and yells ? Thep belonged to saloon passengers— then keep them in the saloon. Having had my growl, I feel bound to say that the Company's officers are iu no way responsible for this state of things. They were, as I have always found them, mo9t courteous and obliging, and desirous of ameliorating by every means in their power, the.discoraforts from which the passengers suffered, B. H. R.