The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3890, 12 August 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1875.

The “ Statement on Marine Matters,” presented to the House ot Representatives by the Hon. W. H. Reynolds, is a very interesting document. The general impression that the main duty of Ministers consists in preparing legislative measures for the consideration of Parliament, betrays a very inadequate conception of the work they have to do. Their principal functions are administrative. They have to see that all the work included in the departments under their supervision is I efficiently done, and to furnish such reports as are necessary to satisfy the Legislature and the country that nothing has been neglected. It follows that, if the duties discharged are to be rightly estimated, it is to the reports that reference must be made. These often prove that an amount of labor has been gone through little suspected by the country generally, and that the Minister is the right man in the right place, even although he lacks the ornamental gift of facile speech and' brilliant debating power. One branch of Mr Reynolds’s multifarious duties is supervision of the Marine Department, This includes the construction and maintenance of lighthouses, stormsignale, and weather reporting, and all other public matters conducive to the safety of the rapidly increasing shipping of the Colony. Mr Reynolds’s statement was very brief and business-

like. It was merely a summary of the principal events during the past year. The amount of work done and the necessity for farther extension are to be gathered from the reports on which it was based. Appended to the tcmth report is the New Zealand Wreck Chart, from Ist July, 1874, to 30th Jone, 1875, a glance at which is sufficient to make one acquainted with the most risk}' portions of our coast. There av© too many Jottings telling of losses of vessels, both steam and sailing; but it is encouraging' to the chief seaports of the East Coast of the Middle Island that so little danger appears to be connected with them. The greatest number of casualties appears to have taken place on the West Coast, at Hokitika, whore the wreck marks, with partial loss, are half-a-dozen. Two are registered at Grey mouth, two at Invercargill, two between that poit and the Nuggets. Outside Dunedin Heads two collisions are recorded, one between sailing vessels and the other between a steamer and a sailing ship. Between Port Chalmers and Allday Bay two total losses and two partial, one of the latter a steamer, are marked ; while three vessels, involving partial loss, were stranded at Oamaru, and there was a collision, with partial

loss, between two sailing Teasels in the roadstead. The number of partial wrecks at Timaru during the year was two, and off Banks's Peninsula one sailing vessel was totally lost. No farther casualties appear to have taken place until Cook’s Strait is reached, in which six vessels, including one steamer, were wrecked. In addition to these was one collision between a steamer and a sailing vessel. The losses were partial, as was also that of one vessel at Nelson. One ship was totally wrecked off Manawatu, one partially at Wanganui, two at Waitara, and off or in the Waikato River a collision took place, with the loss of one of the vessels. Off* Hokianga one wreck occurred, and five in the Hauraki Gulf, all partial losses. Off Taux’anga two vessels were stranded, one in Poverty Bay, one off Table Cape, a little to the. southward ; a total loss took place at Napier, a partial one a short distance south of Cape Matamawi, and a steam vessel was wrecked off Cape Turnagain. It will be seen from this summary that the list is a long one, and that the Marine Department has important duties to discharge in guarding as far as possible against such disasters. Already lighthouses are constructed on the most important leading points on the coast, and others are projected calculated to afford guidance where danger exists. The increase of our shipping is shown by the light dues during the year. The amount was £10,24:2, being £1,475 more than last year—an increase of one-seventh in twelve months.