THE TARARUA DISASTER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 342, 12 May 1881, Page 2

THE TARARUA DISASTER.

♦ —: The enquiry was continued yesterday, the chief mate’s cross examination being concluded and the evidence of John Williams, a passenger, and Edward Maloney, second mate, also taken. In his evidence Maloney thus described the striking of the vessel :—lt might bo ten or fifteen minutes afterwards (5 o’clock) when I again fancied that I could hear the surf on the beach. I went aft and told the captain I thought she was rather close. He was then looking at his chart on his table. He came and looked along the starboard aide, and rushed to the steering wheel which is aft in the Tararua. He put the helm hard astarboard. As the ship was coming around she struck. I cannot say how many points she had come round. I had seen nothing before she struck. After she struck she dragged heavily, for perhaps a few minutes, and then bumped and settled down. After she first struck she canted her head to the northward. I saw the broken water all around her. I could then see the loom of the land. He then wont on to detail as previously stated what was done after the vessel struck, the way of landing from the boats, &c., and concluded—- “ I have been with Captain Garrard for two months. I believe ho kept a book in which lie marked down the courses run, but I never saw it. I had no knowledge of the details of the coast, such as the boat harbors. I made no attempt to make for them. All the boats and appliances were in good order. The ship was well found. In my judgment the best was done after the wreck that could be done under the circumstances. At the time of the wreck everybody on board was perfectly sober. Captain Garrard was a teetotaller. The Chief Postmaster, Dunedin, yesterday received a telegram from Invercargill: —“ The recovered mail bag, Dunedin to Melbourne, wrecked in the Tararua, contained 100 letters, and 21 registered. 19 of the latter can be delivered ; the other two are much damaged. A public meeting was hold in the Pitt street Wesleyan Church, Auckland, last night, re the fund for the families of the late Revs. Richardson and Arm it ago. One hundred pounds was subscribed at the meeting, and a committee was appointed to collect subscriptions. Rev Thomas Buddie presided, and the Revs. Dewsbury and Oliver, and other gentlemen spoke. A resolution expressing sympathy with the bereaved families was carried, [BY TBLBOBAPH.] Dukexun, To-day. AH the seamen declare that everything possible was done by the second mate with a view to saving life. Danz wound up his evidence in a very emphatic manner, viz. ; “If all the steamers in England had been there, they could not have saved a soul from the Tararua after 12 o’clock.”