AN EXTRAORDINARY SCENE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 69, 16 March 1877, Page 3

AN EXTRAORDINARY SCENE.

Seven Men Overboard.

The " New Zealand Herald "of Feb. 27 says :—Just as the mail steamer Zealandia was about to take her departure at h alfpast 6 6'clock last evening, a disturbance took place,Jwhich resulte din on fewer than seven men being in fimminent danger of losing their lives through drowning. The circumstances, so far as can be ascertained, are as follows :—lt appears that a number of Cornish miners, who had booked to Auckland from San Francisco, desired to continue on to Sydney, and the greater number had made arrangements to that effect. Two, it appears, had not made application until yesterday, and these, with others, came ashore and became inebriated. Just as the steamer was about to cast off, they came to the stage and proceeded on board. Their disorderly conduct attracted attention, and they were pushed ashore. Another passenger, who assumed the role of a peacemaker, invited them on board, and they were proceeding up the gangway when two quartermasters seized them, and pushed them back on the wharf. The passenger referred to again interfered, and he in turn was seized by one of the quarter-masters. The passenger was pushing back on board again, when one of the crew, who is, we believe, the third cabin steward, rushed forward, and struck him a heavy blow on the face. The crowd on the wharf raised cries of •' Fair play," and some of them tried to drag the aggressive steward ashore, and .hi the struggle his shirt was torn almost entirely from his back. A general noise then ensued on the landing-stage, and almost immediately the two drunken passengers and another found themselves floundering in the water between the ship and the wharf, — whether they fell over or were pushed over, we cannot say. Instantly the cry of " Man overboard," was raised, and, without consideration, the ship's butcher jumped into the water. What his object was it is impossible to conjecture. He apparently had some dim idea that he could be serviceable to some in the water, but he himself soon wanted aid as much as they did. Ropes, buoys, &c, were thrown into the water, and, strange to say, three other men plunged off the Wharf, making in all seven sane men struggling at one time, dragging each other down instead ot assisting each other. The scene from the Wharf was unique and indescrible. One man would seize hold of another but whether with the object of saving himself, it was difficult to determine. The rush to the edge of the Wharf was so great, the_ outcries, suggestions, and orders so manifold, and the disinclination to keep back, and allow those that were competent to endeavour to rescue the drowning men so manifest, that it is almost miraculous that no lives were lost, especially as several of those who were in the water were so drunk that they were utterly incompetent to do anything to save themselves. To jump into the water seemed to become infectious, and about a dozen fellows had to be held back, or they would have gone right over, without even looking whether they would not have struck some of the men already in the water. The cry brought to the rescue a small dingy, in which three men were fishing alongside the Thurland Castle, who pushing through the wharf, succeeded after no little difficulty in rescuing the men who were in danger. The butcher was so thoroughly exhausted that he was unable to climb up the rope which was in his hand, and a bowline knot had to be made, by which he was hoisted on deck. Others were raised in a similar manner, and when all were safely landed on deck, loud cheers were given by those on shore, and responded to by those on board, as an acknowledgment of the successful rescue of the men whose lives had been in such imminent peril. At last, it is believed that all those who jumped into the water were got out again. We may mention, as a conulusion to this amount, that the passengers who were being pushed off the ship got on board in the confusion and were taken on to Sydney.

The Australasian notices the cricket matches played by the English Eleven at Auckland and Wellington, and says:— " When it was contemplated, some time ago, to send an Australian eleven to Maori Land to make a tour of the provinces, the New Zealand cricketers, in speaking of the contemplatedmeeting of Australian wielders of the willow, ridiculed the idea of playing the visitors save on level terms, and a comparison was at once instituted between Australian and New Zealand cricket. The result of the matches, so far, goes to prove that both New South Wales and Victoria are a long way in advance of their southern friends, and that a really good Australian eleven would play and defeat any fifteen the respective provinces could produce."