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November 13, 1852.] THE LEADER, 1089
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s A S(IU<;w. ^ l ' Mn time his I; your, ...
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SKATS TO SIOK T1IK SHOW. Tnio .spirit i....
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Socialist At The Diggings. Nuggets M...
Tioraries , has suffered prejudice to supply the t ) lace of investigation and fair judgment . Genuine socialism is not " robbery , " but the development of property : is not disorder , but " concert , " " harmony ; " and it is from an extension of the socialistic feeling that we look for the removal of the disorders and chaotic disruption of Australian society . Why , we a 3 K , is her society so disorganized r "Why her property so unsafe ? It is , because ¦ with every fresh import of human beings , she continues to be supplied with more individualism . Tliither , to that great Eldorado , thousands repair to make a fortune . The shore gained ,
helterskelter they go ; the timid to the towns , the strong to the diggings , exclaiming , with a reckless sneer , " each for himself , and God for us all'" A three or four months' voyage has developed crude notions of liberty , and possibly the whole physical being has acquired a vigour unfelt before . The prizes , however , are not for all ; and to those who are there , and to those going there , we throw out the hint to concert your action one with another . " Concert" is the watchword of the true and rational socialist , not
" robbery . " The gradual formation of companies for different trading purposes in Australia proves that a species of organization is being developed , and societies for the stemming of disorder , by arresting criminals , are actively contemplated amongst the citizens ; the service performed by the Government officials being of little avail . The criminal will necessarily form part of that stream of population which is rushingthrough that magnificent field of enterprise . But there is in Australia
an amount of intelligence greater for the number of its population more than any other colony can boast ; and when this intelligence gets concerted in its operations , the disorders , suffering , and waste will be diminished . England and America present examples in the greatness of their institutions , of unity of action springing from unity of purpose ; and although it is evident that Australia will , out of the abundance of her means , in process of time develope institutions suitable to the necessities of her people , how much more rapid and smooth the development when directed by a common understanding .
It is not by lectures or exhortations that this Australian socialism is to be there spread . The lecturer waiting for an audience at the diggings would find no parallel in absurdity . Like the windmill , with Don Quixote tilting at it , the machinery of Australian society would go dashing round with the same rapidity as ever , heedless of such , feeble and futile attempts to arrest its course . Where bread , mutton , and
wine can be earned by the sweat of the brow , and incomesrealizedconsiderablyabovo seven shillings ft week , the propagandist who would speak to be hoard amongst those motley groups , must exhibit his passport with the word " cnpital" inscribed thereon , nnd must bo the skilful contriver of schemes for the further enrichment of his auditors . Tho moniod ceconomist might read that practical working lesson in concert ; and although it Mould bo hia place to point out where this pair <> 1 muscles had best labour , and where that pair , 111
order to realize the increase of advantages individuall y and collectively , still hia energies Mould not be directed so much to direction as to | ° mbination , aiming to attain tho zeal stimulated l ) . Y a common interest . Surrounded by the raw Tii : itori ; tl in abundance for every earthly comfort , men wim j ) aj (; n [ ij anxiOU 8 countenances are I'tniHHed by tho feverish uncertainty of their w'nuro of either riches or life . Teach them how [¦' . ' w () rk together , how to rob , not each other , but r earth alone , guarantee to them the means of a tf ° < ' ( I oeginninjr am _ i y lcv would ronav the , uieonoh
iniHLwjI . gratitude nnd ' a good round " interest . " . "rough him they would practically learn how "wrouso of mutual protection and increase ? of pioiil , are convertible terms m-ining from the 1 'niclinil application of his doctrine . Amongst "' / Jotl « i-ut , e , d IhuuIh , borrtes and bullocks would I my o ,, ] y to | )( , rotunda | , () their owners , t ) r "' I would know that ; the property of nil is ° nkh-o- than tho plunder of tho i \ : \ v .
November 13, 1852.] The Leader, 1089
November 13 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER , 1089
S A S(Iu<;W. ^ L ' Mn Time His I; Your, ...
s A S ( IU <; w . ^ ' Mn time his I ; your , the Government having ro-^ vert -may their bounty be extolled!—to bestow ^ "iHtndia , the boon of a bimonthly mail , adverw " ' <» ' tenders for that service . Tho call < la anawored by tho General Screw Steam
Shipping Company , who offered to put upon the intended line such vessels as the Queen of the South , the Lady Jocelyn , and others whose build , fittings , appointments , speed , and punctuality , have made that Company ' s name illustrious in the annals of steam navigation . But their offer was not accepted . A new company , formed for the occasion , — a company untried , inexperienced , possessing as yet not a single ship , and hardly known beyond the latitude of the Stock
Exchange , proposed to undertake the job at a lower figure ; and how could a thrifty Government refuse such an offer P The contract was given , not to the company that presented the amplest guarantees for its strict fulfilment , but to that one which promised to do the business , no matter how , at the least cost ; and so the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company came before the public , encompassed with the prestige of Government patronage , and exalted almost to the rank of a national institution .
The company's first vessel , the Australian , left England in June last , and from Cape de Verde , the first land she touched at , came public protests / signed by her passengers , besides numerous private letters filled with vehement complaints . The writers admitted the good sea-going qualities of the Australian , but alleged that she was unfit for the service on which she was employed , and that her inherent defects were made more
intolerable by all sorts of mismanagement . She was much too low , they said , between decks ; her cabins were too small , six berths being inclosed in a space not more than sufficient for four ; she was ill-ventilated and indecently deficient in accommodations requisite for health and cleanliness ; she was over-crowded with passengers and over-freighted with goods , even her decks being so encumbered as to leave no walking-room for the more numerous class of passengers ; and her cargo had been stowed with such heedless haste as to bury under it part of the luggage marked for use on the ^ voyage . To these and many other complaints the directors of the company replied with equivocations , with excuses on the ground of difficulties incident to a first start , and with
promises to do better next time . The Sydney was the second vessel ; and in her the company was to have shown what they could do after two more months of preparation ; but she exhibited most of her predecessor ' s faults , and added to them one more—namely , gross want of punctuality . She was a week behind her time at Plymouth , and about a month at the Cape , where one , at least , of her passengers , is known to hayo quitted her in disgust . Steamer though she is , she w ill have made a slower passage to Australia than many a sailing vessel .
In their third performance , the Australian Ifcoyal Mail Steam Company surpassed themselves , and established for their fleet a reputation unparallcllcd save by her Majesty's steamers . They took the simplest and surest means to achieve this distinction by purchasing the Grccnoch , built for the Admiralty , and notorious for the tinkering she bad undergone in the vain hope of making her seaworthy . This doomed for the Admiral
abortion , too bad even ty , was christened by her new owners tho Melbourne ; but no baptism could wash out the original sin of her parentage . Six weeks ago she floundered out of tho Thames , became almost a wreck in passing through the Downs , put into Deal for shelter , underwent reoairs at Devonport dockyard , and was reported ready for sea again . But she could not even get out of port without another little adventure , in which . she lost her
jib-boom , davits , chain cable , anchor , Ate . At " last she was fairly started from Plymouth , on the 15 th ol" October , twelve days after her appointed time . . nut she was no sooner at sea again than sho began to take in water greedily , like a sponge ; the under-deek was Hooded , baggage and berths wore drenched , and some of the latter rendered quite untenantable . This was the state of things in fair weather nnd with a , favourable
wind . By-and-byo u fresh breeze . sprang up , but nothing like what seamen call half a gale , and the Melbourne began to roll and niteh as none but Admiralty-built steamers , or line-of-hattlo ships like tho Albion ., rolled before , or as one of tho . Mcl , bourm : \ s own boilers might have done if it had been ringed up as a yacht , and set afloat in tho Hay of Biscay . At last , with a sudden crush , hIic rolled all her top-m ; mtn an < l her jobboom overboard , with nil their gour and cuuvuhs . The screw
and the rudder were entangled by the wreck ; scarcely sail enough could be set to keep the ship ' s head to the wind ; and for two days and nights this crazy tub lay lurching fearfully , and pitching like a porpoise , unable to sail , steam , or steer . Crew and passengers , toiling together , succeeded , after thirty hours' labour , in clearing the screw ; but another long interval elapsed before the engines could be prevailed upon to move . This difficulty also was overcome ; and the ship had again been running her intended course for some twenty hours , when it was found that she had sprung a leak . Her head was immediately turned towards LisboD , where she arrived on the 24 th
of last month , and thence , it is said , she is to be brought home to her old quarters in Devonport Dockyard , in order to undergo another course of repairs of indefinite duration . Badly as her voyage has ended , the catastrophe might have been infinitely worse . The closing mK . caulking of her port-holes , after her first disasters in the Downs , though it did not render her water-tight , yet made her far more than sufficiently air-tight . The ship ' s surgeon , Dr . Foucart , has recorded his deliberate opinion , that had the Melbourne continued her voyage southwards a few days longer , a fearful mortality must have occurred . ; for it was impossible to preserve health and
cleanliness in such a vessel , and disease had already established itself among her overcrowded inmates . Ill-found , unseaworthy , unventilatcd , with an ill-conditioned crew of disorderly landlubbers , with rigging not half spread or rattled down , with a choice of two deaths staring the passengers in the face , —such are the temptations to embark in a steam-ship privileged to carry the pendant and her Majesty's mails . Convict-ships are palaces of comfort in comparison . We may then congratulate the Melbourne ' s passengers on their escape from a horrible dilemma—death by malignant fever , or by such a fate as theirs who went down in the President .
But meanwhile what are they to do ? Many of them are men of small means , who can badly , or not at all , afford the expense to which they have been already put by their forced sojourn at Plymouth and at Lisbon , and that which they must further incur if they have to pay for their passage to Australia in another vessel . Some of them have sent out goods to Australia , expecting to arrive before them in that iirst-rate fast-going steamer , which never again , we hope , will venture on such a voyage . One gentleman , a passenger from the United States , has six or seven vessels consigned to Port Phillip , and was going out to meet them . He would have saved time
if , instead of embarking in the Melbourne , he had taken ship for New York , and thence made his way by a sailing vessel to Australia . The ill-used passengers havo requested the directors of the Australianlioyal Mail Steam Company to forward them to their destination by another vessel ; but to this the directors demur for the present : they will do nothing until they have the report of a commission which they have sent to Lisbon to inquire into the facts of the ease . . But the facts already authenticated and notorious are more than enough to justify the demand of the passengers , and to make it imperative on any company , jealous of its reputation for liberality and lair dealing .
Happily the business of linking Australia and England together by steam communication will not long be left at the sole discretion of the gentlemen who manage tho affairs of the Australian . Royal Mail . Steam . IN avigation Company . The directors of the General Screw Steam Ship Company have summoned a meeting of proprietors for j ^ riday next , to lay be Ion ? them a matured project for establishing , without delay , " a , full , and efficient
communication , by means of large and powerful steam-ships , with Port , Phillip and Sydney . " Such an announcement coining from such ; i quarter will bo hailed by the public with unbounded confidence and satisfaction . What that Company is pledged to do may already be regarded as a . thing well done . Gentlemen of the Australian Royal Mail ' ? Steam Navigation Company ! your annual Government subsidy of 27 , ( MM )/ . is in jeopardy . Change your wayn if you wish to Have it .
Skats To Siok T1ik Show. Tnio .Spirit I....
SKATS TO SIOK T 1 IK SHOW . Tnio . spirit i . s awaking - If it bo Into thai , the officials proponed to keep down tho Hags in Chelsea , Hospital at the time of I he Duke's funeral , lest they nhould " ollend tho foreigner , " tho
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13111852/page/13/
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