A VISIT TO THE EAST INDIA DOCKS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 11 February 1880, Page 2

A VISIT TO THE EAST INDIA DOCKS.

, 4> The Pall Mall Gfizette, in an interest, ing description of the busy life amoDgst the shipping in the above docks, says, " What strikes the visitor most in the docks is the enormous number of Oriental seamen. All the steamers passing through the Suez Canal are manned by crews of lascars ; and the Canal and the lascars together have wrought a complete revolution in the Eastern traffic. Within the memory of man it has passed through throe distinct stages. First were the golden days of the East India Company's navy, when hsppy officials were shaking the pagoda tree, and freights of priceless value were being shipped from a country that was popularly believed an El Dorado. The very pickings of the trade were so valuable that a captain could gain a competency in a single trip ; and we believe after mailing the fortune that three voyages ensured him be was compelled to rptire in favor of his juniors. Then came Waghorn and his exploration of the Overland route, and the establishing of the Peninsular and Oriental Com any. The men who used to furnish their cabins sumptuously tor the long voyage round the Cape, who used to viotual themselves with all manner of private delicacies and lay in casks of wine and casks of se-ated waters, were precisely those to whom time seemed valuable, and who did not grudge the prices of the new route. The Peninsular and Oriental Company for long had a monoply of aristocratic business, and it may be said that they well deserved it. If they charged high they gave value for the money in the shape of swift and punctual passages, with every reasonable luxury. The passage paid, you travelled en grand seigneur. It glad" dened the hearts of the shar-jholdm after the railway had been oppned across the Tsthn.us, to see the crowds of passengers afc the m eting of the tides that overflowed the hotel accommodation of Alexandria. And though the vesseis were built for the accommodation of passens gers, what freight they carried — in handy little packages of silks nnd muslins — was extremely valuable. M. Lpsseps, in his character of cosmopolitan benefactor, knocked that lucrative monoply on the head. Henceforth the company had to compete with rival associations, whose steamers had been built especially for the Canal trade. It has been forced to rebuild its fleets, reduce its charges, cut down the

salaries an J pay off its employees, and man its ships with lascars on both sides of the Isthmus. The public generally have cause to be grateful, except for the single drawback that the comfortable old paddio boats are done away with. It must be allowed, however, that several of the Dewest vessels, such as the KaisersiHind, with her saloons that can dine 180 passengers, her spacious sleeping cabins, and lie? ten bathrooms ate magnificent. And the Kaiser, for example, is built to carry 3000 tons of cargo without in any way affecting her speed. It used to be said that the lascars were irritable and revengeful ; so that they were generally kept in a minority in the crew. So far, however, it has been found in practice that they are sober and amenable to dis cipline. But the first thing done with them is to deprive them of the knives they carry. They are berthed tier over tier in a great saloon in the forecastle, screened off from the quartermaster's cabin behind by canvass, that may be raised for purposes of supervision. They include men of all the manlier Indian races — Sikhs, Pathans, and Afghans among the rest — and no fewer than 18,000 of them have been passed already through the books of the Peninsular and Oriental Company alone."