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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2989, 24 January 1881, Page 2

It was notified on Saturday that the launch with outward passengers for the steamer Albion would leave the wharf at eight o'clock in the evening. A very large number of passengers consequently assembled at the wharf at the appointed hour, where, however, they had to remain standing in the dark till close upon ten o'clock. The luggage was lying pellmell on the wharf without a care-taker, each person being compelled to watch his property, or run the risk of losing it. When the launch left the deck was crowded to what appeared an unsafe degree, and it being pitch dark, to say the least, it put passengers to unnecessary risk and inconvenience. To add to the general discomfort there were certain parties leaving whose behaviour and language were shocking to respectable persons, which should not have been tolerated by the master in charge of the launch. On arriving alongside the Albion a rush was made to the gpngway before it was properly placed. Captain Garrard, in the interests of safety, descended to the launch, and ordered that no one should go up the gangway until it was ready. In his anxiety he thrust back the obtruding crowd of persons, and in endeavoring to put the gangway into position, he let the end of it drop on to the foot of a lady in ill health. By the foregoing it will be easily seen that the management of the Union steamers as regards their arrival and departure requires very much revision. The trade of the port deserves some better treatment than it receives. It is disgraceful that these steamers, crowded as they invariably are, should oftentimes discharge and take in both passengers and cargo at night. This management, even alongside a wharf with lights and every attention to the safety and comfort of all concerned, would be open to cavil, but when it occurs in an open roadstead, it gives the port a name that it does not deserve, and adds to the evil repute of the place, which, under better management, it would never have obtained.