UNDESIRABLES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 1, 24 December 1912, Page 6

UNDESIRABLES.

Tho British immigrants who have been induced, as the result of, a strenuous advertising campaign, to take up their residence in Australia, are not all.of the type likely to bo a valuable acquisition to the country of their adoption. The Sydney ‘Sun’ recently published tho statement of one of tho stewards on the emigrant ship Irishman, which brought 1100 immigrants to Australia. Mr. A. Inglefield, tho steward in question, was m charge of the immigrants, and 1m briefly and vividly summed up his experiences of the nine weeks’ voyage as “nine weeks in hell.” The immigrants, he said, were the scum of England, Ireland and Scotland. With the exception of about 200 decent people, they lived “like a herd of penned pigs, and wallowed in tho indescribable filth of their own making.” For nine weeks some of them npver washed themselves, and some became so objectionable through their dirtiness that they had to be forcibly bathed. Tin crew and the stewards’ staff had then work cut out to keep tho ship in any sort of sanitary condition. Not only were most of the immigrants dirty, but they were also incorrigible thieves They stole the locks off the cabin doors, and robbed the, lavatories of all the fittings that could be unscrewed. They stole all tho table-covers to patefi their efothes, and were continually pilfering crockery and food from the dining tables. Most of the immigrants paid only £1 as their fare, but they were continually grumbling and growling at the food and at their accommodation. They never attempted to assist in the work of the ship, ami some of them absolutely refused to leave their bunks for weeks, and had to be “fumigated out.” The officers of the ship corroborated the steward s story.—‘Lyttelton Times.’