TEE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



207 



To Australia and Back. 



By the? Hon. T. K. Murray, C.M.G,, M.L.A.., Natal Representative to the Opening 

 of the First Federal Parliament, May 9th, 1901. 



AS it may be of interest to my fellow- 

 colonists, I will relate my experi- 

 ences and first impressions. My wife 

 and I left Mai-itzburg on the morning of 

 the 30th March in order to catch the 

 Sophocles at Capetown, as the next 

 steamer would arrive too late. 



We were to have started from Durban 

 early on Sunday, but, owing to the 

 scarcity of labour at the Point, we did 

 not leave till 5 p.m. The Inshtva is a 

 very good little steamer, about 3,000 tons, 

 and the captain and officers were all very 

 obliging. We made a very good run 

 down the coast ; about eighteen hours 

 took us to East London, thirty hours to 

 Port Elizabeth, and we arrived at Cape- 

 town on Wednesday about noon. The 

 Sophocles had not arrived from England, 

 so we had to go ashore. We stayed at the 

 Mount Nelson Hotel, certainly "much the 

 best hotel in South Africa. There we 

 had to remain until Friday. 



We were hourly expecting the arrival 

 of the steamer, and, as she was only to 

 stay a few hours, we could not go far 

 from the hotel. On Friday morning we 

 heard the steamer had arrived, and at 

 once went down to the wharf. Although 

 the plague was causing much trouble in 

 Capetown we saw no sign of any kind, 

 except the notices in the cabs that they 

 were disinfected. At the docks, however, 

 we had to obtain a certificate that our 

 luggage was clean, and as we came on 

 board the Sophocles each person had to 

 pass the doctor, to put out his tongue and 

 have his pulse felt. We were told that 

 everyone had to have a thermometer put 

 in his mouth, and as the same instrument 

 was to be used, each was being naturally 

 anxious, for first turn. However this 

 precaution was only taken in the case of 

 two persons who had evidently been say- 

 ing farewells to their friends, and whose 

 temperature was probably high. 



As soon as we were on board (about 

 noon) our ship started, and we found the 

 Sophocles a very comfortable steamer 

 of about 5,000 tons. The cabins were the 

 best I have ever seen, and ours was about 



12ft. by 6ft, There were not many saloon 

 passengers, about twenty, so we had plenty 

 of room. The captain and officers are 

 some of the best I have met. 



Soon after leaving Capetown we went 

 almost south, and found it very cold We 

 were glad of all the warm clothing we 

 had, and for several days the vessel was 

 heated by steam pipes. We went south 

 till we reached 4.5" latitude, and then 

 went east. The roiTte is much the shape 

 of a saucer, instead of straight across, 

 for two reasons — one, to get favourable 

 winds, and the other, to get the 

 smaller end of the earth, which the 

 Captain told us saves about 600 miles 

 on the voyage. We gained about half-an- 

 hour in time each day. Our daily runs 

 from Capetown to Melbourne were 253, 

 255, 313, 305, 306, 281, 295, 289, 323, 293, 

 302, 306, 309, 285, 296, 308, 338, 333, 300 

 up to noon on the 24th, and we got into 

 the harbour about midnight, landing on 

 the morning of the 26th April. 



We had some very rough weather a few 

 days after leaving Capetown, and lost one 

 side of our deck awnings one night. Then 

 just before we arrived we were in the 

 very bad weather which caused so mmy 

 wrecks here ; fortunately for us we were 

 running in front of it. 



The Sophocles, Salami's, and^ Moravian, 

 are the best boats on this line; some of 

 the old ones have the passenger accom- 

 modation aft. I asked the captain if there 

 was not attraction enough to call at 

 Durban coming out. He said it would 

 mean losing two days, as they came so far 

 south on the outward voyage ; going back, 

 however, they keep to the north. 



An enterprising old lady, Mrs. Donald 

 Cameron, from Tasmania, had quite a 

 farmyard on board -a horse, four Jerseys, 

 besides dogs, poultry, and partridges. She 

 only paid as freight 45 guineas for the 

 horse, 30 for the cows, and 15 for calves, 

 though the distance is double that for 

 which we pay nearly the same. I was 

 also informed that freight on goods was 

 about 27s. 6d. per ton. 



