Applicants for berths are numerous enough, but the class of certified young men that tramp owners would like in their service are all seeking employment in the larger liner companies, disregarding the tramps entirely.
The superseding of sailing ships by tramp steamers has had much to do with the present situation, as it is not uncommon for tramp boats to remain away from the home port for two years or more.
In the liner service officers are able to enjoy a little more of home life, as the liners come home at regular intervals.
In times like the present, when so much of the romance of seafaring has departed, the attraction of home life upon the sailor is greater than ever. Strange to say, the increase in material comfort on board ship has somewhat alienated the mind of seamen from his vessel, and it is rare nowadays to find seafarers who take any pride at all in their floating homes.
Perhaps the growing ugliness of ships, from the aesthetic point of view, has a great deal to account for this decadence of the sailor instinct, to which must be added the fact that the average steamship officer of the present age knows very little about his own ship in a technical sense, in contrast with the custom of former generations.
• Constable McGilp, who is now stationed at Birkenhead, on Monday found himself distinctly "in luck's way" (says the New Zealand Herald), for he recovered a much-prized and intrinsically valuable gold watch-chain in a remarkable manner, many, many days - in fact, 30 years - after it had passed from him into the regions of possessions that were, but are not.
In those bygone times he was stationed at Russell, Bay of Islands, and by some means his three-year-old boy had got "daddy's watch-chain" to play with. He incontinently lost it; and sedulous search of the paddock in which the child had played failed utterly. The chain was given up for lost.
A week or so ago a Maori employed cutting furze down in the same old paddock found the chain, and with a commendable honesty of purpose at once handed it over to Constable Parsons, who is now in charge of Bay of Plenty district.
Parsons made inquiries and soon found that the owner of the long-lost valuable was still accessible. As a result it was handed over to McGilp, who lost no time in suitably acknowledging the honourable conduct of the Maori.
• Earnscleugh Flat has been pegged off on more than one occasion for mining purposes, but during the past week or so it has been re-pegged once again (says the Dunstan Times), this time for the purpose of fruit-growing.
Practically the whole of the unoccupied portion lying between the road and the Molyneux River is said to have been applied for by different persons, but in all instances the main objective is fruit culture.
• London: The Lusitania has steamed from Liverpool to New York and back in 11 days thus beating the record established by the Mauretania last Christmas.
The Mauretania reached Fishguard at 10.22 p.m. on December 22, thus accomplishing her self-imposed task of covering the double Atlantic journey within 12 days.
She left New York on December 17 at 6 o'clock (New York time), according to schedule, though she had arrived much later than calculated owing to terrible seas.
- ODT, 12.9.1911.
