23

D.-2

Sub-Enclosures to Enclosure in No. 51. Despatching 'Officer's Eemarks on Immigration Commissioners' Eeports. " Queen of the North." Letter No. 51, of 13th March, 1874. Tins vessel appears to have arrived in a most satisfactory condition, but the Commissioners suggest that the Agent-General be directed to make provision for the erection of a water-closet for the married women below deck, in any future vessel coming to Hawke's Bay. I'am of opinion that, however desirable such a provision may be, both in"a"moral point of view as well as for the comfort of married women in bad weather, on sanitary grounds it is very objectionable. During the time I served as Emigration Officer, we first had water-closets below for use only at night; these were abandoned owing to their being a nuisance to the rest of the passengers and a source of disease. The decks were then scuttled to give a passage way from below to the closets on deck; this plan was also abandoned, except where the closets could be placed in the awning cabins of the poop, as these closets also created a great effluvium, but were considered dangerous in case of ships shipping a heavy sea. Of course lam prepared to follow any instructions you may give on this subject, but I would not recommend its adoption. Edwd. A. Smith, E.N., 18th September, 1874. Despatching Officer. "ScniEIIALLION." Letter M. 175, dated 23rd June, 1874. Single JVojnen's Department was objectionably situated— there being no means of preventing communication between the single men, married men, and single girls; the departments being all situated on the same deck. The compartments in nearly all emigrant ships are on the same deck. This ship had no poop, but a sunk cabin, the upper deck of which was raised about two feet above the main deck, and there is no reason why the single women could not have been required to keep there while on deck, and the other emigrants allowed to use the main deck only for exercise. The Department of the Single Girls was also very badly lighted and ventilated. —This compartment was small, only 16 feet fore-and-aft by 2G feet (5 inches broad; the hatchway, which' was fitted with a booby hatch, was 5 feet square, and there was a mushroom ventilator and three deck lights in the compartment. Edwd. A. Smith,?E.N., 18th September, 1874. Despatching Officer. Ship " Douglas." Letters Nos. 224 of 22nd October, 1873, and 230 of 23rd October, 1873. Deficiency of Children's Stores, Medical Comforts, Sfc. —These were all supplied in the proportion provided for in the charter-party, with the exception of eggs, and a quantity of these was put on board for as long as they were likely to last good. "When this ship was fitted out there was no such manufacture as "condensed egg," and it is only after great exertion on my part that this article has been manufactured by a firm in London at my urgent solicitation. Ship not ready, Dead Lights and Ventilators not provided until the ship reached Gravesend. The fittings were complete before the emigrants embarked, and all the ventilation also. A few deck lights may have been put in at Gravesend, after the people were embarked, to improve the lighting of the between decks. The Despatching Officer turned the Surgeon-Superintendent out of the Cabin allotted to him, Sfc. This is not correct. I had arranged, as I always do on first inspection of the ship, for the cabin of the surgeon; in it there was ample light, and it was in all respects a proper accommodation for him. The cabin which he wanted had been allotted to the McDonnells, who, being second-class passengers, could not have been placed in the cabin occupied by the surgeon, as they would then have been mixed up with the first-class passengers. Dr. Tuck's dissatisfaction arose from his having to pay for the passage of his child, which ho tried to conceal, and from my refusing to allow him to have one of the single women to go into his cabin and take charge of it. Edwd. A. Smith, 8.N., 18th September, 1874. Despatching Officer. "Duke of Edinburgh." Letter No. 22, 6th February, 1874. Store and Issuing Boom and Surgery very inconveniently placed, Sfc. —The Commissioners of Immigration complain of the position of the issuing room ; this was abreast the main hatchway on the port side. I invariably placo it on one side of the main hatchway, unless there is some special reason for the contrary, as I consider it the very best place in the ship for the purpose, and in this selection I am borne out by the very memorandum by Captain Edwin, 8.N., and Captain Johnson, Nautical Assessor at Wellington, which is attached to the report, and which is sent home for mv guidance ; and, contrary to that memorandum, the Commissioners recommend " that the issuing room should always be on deck as was the case in ' The Douglas,' " in which ship the surgeon complained " that the arrangement had several drawbacks, particularly in respect to the captains of messes passing down and waiting about in the alleyways close to where the single women exercised on the poop." There was no other place in the ship in which the surgery could be placed, there being no room in the poop; and I consider that the most fit and proper place after that is in the married people's compartment, abreast the main