THE PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 183, 10 January 1877, Page 2

THE PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY.

The meanness of the provision made by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for the sustenance of the saloon passengers by the City of Sydney, on the just concluded trip from San Francisco to Auckland and Sydney, was (writes the special correspondent of the Argus oii In's return from Philadelphia) tlxe subject of constant and legitimate complaint from the commencement to the ending of the voyage, so far as the Australian passengers were concerned, and from San Francisco to Fiji so far as the New Zealand passengers were concerned. The latter had the good fortune to change ships at Fiji; It was not that the food was plain, bnt that u was bad. Many of the passengers breakfasted for dajs in succession on oatmeal, tea, and broad, not from any special relish they bad for such simple diet, but because they could not eit the meats, which, when not so tough as hardly to be masticated, were unwholesome. If fared badly at breakfast, they worse at luncheon and dinner. An portunity was afforded to the ship authorities to replenish stocks at Honolulu, but the cattle taken in there wore still poorer in condition than the animals brought from San Francisco. Frequently eggs were put on the table which had to be sent away as soon as opened, but persons persevered in their applications for those commodities until one morning an egg was produced, which emptied the saloon in less than a minute, even though the passengers had not half finished breakfast. The demand for eggs from that time suddenly fell off. Cloths were kept on the table until positively unpleasant to look at, and the attendants thought-it no disgrace to put clown napkins which, were soaked with saltwater, or had. been rendered filthy with stains apparently acquired in the intervals between meals. If the object of the P.M.S.S. Company is to discourage traffic across the Pacific they ought honestly to say so, and not tempt persons on board by means of advertisements in order to harass tbeni with discomforts.