500 HALF-STARVED AND HALFFROZEN PASSENGERS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 232, 11 July 1872, Page 5

500 HALF-STARVED AND HALFFROZEN PASSENGERS.

The Louisville Ledger says:— "The Holland arrived at New York on the 24th of March, after a long and boisterous trip, with 550 passengers on board, being at least 200 more than she had accommodations for. The vessel had been at sea but a few days when it was discovered the stock of provisions was very light. In less than a week all the flour, potatoes, and other vegetables were exhausted, and the passengers were reduced to a diet of ship biscuit and horse betf, and this of the poorest quality, aud doled out in the smallest portions Starvation began to stare the wretched emigrants in the face, although the ship's officers and crew seemed to have plenty of good aud healthy food. So all appeals for a fair division of this food among the emigrants, the officers and crew only answered with curses and blows. Sickness broke out among the emigrants, and in their desperation some of them made an effort to secure more food, but were knocked down and kicked and beaten by the crew. Many of these miserable people, men, women, and children, were exposed on deck to the cold, and were badly frozen. To such a degree of starvation were these emigrants reduced that when (their scanty allowance of food was issued to them they had to fight for its possession, the desperation of the half-starved passengers, under the impulse of self-preser-vation, leading them to try to take by force from the weakest their share of the wretched food. The horse-beef was absolutely half rotten, and its stench almost stifling, yet the emigrants were forced to eat it to save them from a horrible death by starvation. The limbs of many women and children, as well as a number of men, were so severely frozen that in many cases amputation will be necessary. A report of the sufferings of these emigrants was made to the authorities iv New York."

The Roads. — Some idea of the state road from Dunedin to the Dunstan, via the Hogburn, can be formed from the fact that Cobb and Co.'s coach now takes three days in performing the journey, a distance of about 140 miles,