From Capetown to New Zealand.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 121, 9 March 1901, Page 3

From Capetown to New Zealand.

H By G. A. Wilson. H ( J<m< i nued.) n To all intending travellers by sea II would give a word of caution as to Elia manner of bestowing tips. Too Bauch dependence is placed on the ftitaiuty of stewards and others Receiving a gratuity at the end of a ■ravage-, and their wages are apt to Buffer in consequence. If these men Ere paid to do the work, they should Ei it for the wages they receive, but fte tip system simply makes it certain ■hat the person who gives the better Sip gats the better treatment, and in ftany cases a little neglect produces She required amount of tip. The System is a baleful one, for a man will Sot do anything for yon without Silking it clearly understood that a tip ft expected, and if you do not respond, ftc will tell yon about tba meanness of Homo other passenger, who gave him a S miserable half-crown.” As you H.-obably did not purpose giving anyBhiiig, it means that you cannot offer Bhe despised sura, and must double or fteble it. It is the same thing with Bhe siilors when doing washing. The Slue of the wcrk done may be a Shilling at the outside, but two are Expected. I was foolish enough to tip Beforehand, with no hint from the Steward, and received not one whit Snore attention. The best way is to Sue till the end of the voyage, and Sire what has been earned. If you Hire likely to give a tip you will get mough attention, and tile steward is kept in a state of delightful uncertainty, a state more rosultful to a passenger’s comfort than one of unsatisfied certainty. To add to the interest on board, a weekly paper was started. This was, «f course, written by the editor and was very entertaining '.'it " times’. Various passengers contributed, chief among these being Dr. Zillman, a well-known Australian divine, svho is author of a number of colonial tales and sketches. Telegraphic communications, alleged to be received per Marconi’s wireless system, filled a great part of the columns and were also very amusing. The result was, at the end of the voyage, printed in magazine form and sent to passengers who had prepaid copies. It is a very neat production, and contains a number of prints of groups of passengers and officers from photo graphs taken on board. Reports of concerts, lectures and everyday gossip make it a pleasant memento of the voyage, and a list of passengers affords an opportunity of recalling friends who were then so near and are now so f ir. Of all the places where one can fully realise the wonders of this earth on which we live, it is on board ship. Standing at the stern on a starlight night, the churning screws throw out a myriad sparks of phosphoresence as they force the good ship on its way across the pathless waste of waters. All around is peaceful. Above glitter familiar and unfamiliar constellations, each of them, as like as not, containing living, scheming, good, bad, or indifferent beings like ourselves, most probably ruled by the same natural laws, and perchance with a similar faith in a Supreme Being who made all things and saw that they were good. With none of the everyday thoughts and cares to intrude, one has time to fully realise the vastness of this universe; the tiny bark wending its way across the dark waters such a dot on the face of the earth, and the earth itself such a dot on the face of creation. Then it is that thoughts crowd on in quick succession, and each brain finds its own limit of understanding without being one hairsbreadth nearer the solution of the whole great mystery of our life —why we live, by whose direction and for what end. Alone with his thoughts and free from the presence of varied and unconvincing dogmas, the whole subject seems too vast for mortal man. He cannot argue, for he has no beginning ; he cannot sum up, for he has no end, and there the matter must rest. Truly said one Saxon chief whom, in the days of old, it was sought to convert to Christianity, “ This life is like the flight of a sparrow through the hall when men sit at meat; it comes from the darkness, we know not whither,' it abidetb for a brief season in the light, and is lost again in the darkness at the other side," [T« bi continued,)