The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, DECEMBER 29, 1903.

Gisborne Times, Volume XII, Issue 1083, 29 December 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, DECEMBER 29, 1903.

TIIB AUCKLAND DISASTER. In a commentary on the tram disaster the Auckland morning journal has an ably-written article, calmly reviewing the position and outlining necessary steps in the circumstances. The article is as follows The terrible tram disaster of Christmas •Eve has not only filled many homes with sorrow, but has tinged with ,sympathetic gloom the Christmas rejoicings of Auckland. Such sudden catastrophe, involving loss of life and limb., personal suffering and widespread grief, are sad at any time ; but they arc saddest of all when they come at holiday seasons, particularly when they come to blight the fond expectations of the Christmastide. Arid it adds to the pitccusncss of such fatalities that women and children, intent on innocent pleasures and surrounded with L the seeming security of peaceful and : homely ways, meet in them a doom i which is bad enough to contemplate ■ .when it comes to strong men engaged in hazardous and perilous occupations. Sudden death, crushing aceiilent, always arouses pity; but notilling is lacking to arouse the softer A ieiings of the community in the m ost lamentable happening we have to- -day to record. When wc think of these car-loads of merry people , i i 1 1 i i

—of.'' men and women, girls and lads ‘and! little children—ldled w th gentle thoughts for those they loved and ea{; c rly setting townwards to make good tire long-cherished intentions of the genial Christmas season, to buy the ; ix kindly Christmas presents, to enjoy the Christmastide ditplays, to shaire in the glad festivities, with wir'ich the whole town was celebrating; the most domestic of human institutions, suddenly crushed together (With results unprecedented in the annajs of the city, the touch of nature that makes the world akin surgtjs upwards in every heart; Nor

is cur feeline the less sincerely sympathetic because the disaster which happened on the Kingsland line might have happened on any line, and because it was one of those peculiar accidents after which ten thousand homes feel a grateful sense of individual escapes. The dead, the dying, the shattered,, the wounded, have had a niche in the Christmas thoughts of every heme in Auckland, and those weeping relatives and grieving friends whose Christmas joy was so tragically. turned to mourning have had the heartfelt; sympathy, of the entire community. The public press must leave to the judicial inquiry which will follow unbiassed investigation ? into the causes of this most extraordinary rl icoci.rniHJ o f'nifJnTi which

ami disastrous accident, wmen causes are being -warmly canvassed wherever news or the tragedy has spread. That the investigation shall he searching and unfaltering is not only laid down as a maxim by the Law, but is imperatively demanded by public opinion. .Nor do we hesitate to say that Law and public opinion will be equally and equitably satisfied. For in the face of such a pathetic tragedy, and with the feelings invoked by Christmas strong and fresh within us all, there is not and cannot be any clamor for a scaneeoat. unon whom may be dulled

scapegoat, upon wnum m<vy uu.iv« the edge oi private anguish and public indignation. We may be very sure, even granted that there may have been in the affair something more than unavoidable accident, that precision and foresight and coolness of head and promptness of hand might have saved the lives and prevented the suffering which now we mourn, that any who, however indirectly, feel responsible, have borne (since a punishment greater than man ■can or would inflict. What is wanted

.in the inquiry, and what we are satisfied will be obtained, is a satisfactory conclusion as to the exact cause or causes of the disaster, and as to the possibility of preveneing, or assisting to prevent, any recurrence. In this it may ho confidently assumed that the officials of the law will have the unqualified co-opera-tion of the Tramway Company and its employees. Thus we may, hope to derive such public consolation as is possible from a disaster which has (Shaken the public mind to the core and which has aroused in a remarkable measure public sympathy with its numerous victims. Barren as such public consolation may appear at present, it is the only one which is lasting, lor it is .the only one from .which permanent good can spring. Auckland, paid a price on Christmas live which entitles it to hope .that the same experience need never be bought again, if prevention he within the range of human knowledge and the scope of human intellect. For those who individually suffer, aud for those greatest of all sufferers—the living who are left lamenting—the fellow-feeling of those who understand how the same blow would have fallen on them may help to that Christian resignation which is one of the greatest lessons of the Christinastid?.

We cannot avoid referring to a phase of modern scientific, development wli ch has long been on the longue of the average man and woman and which the tragedy, of .Christmas Eve has driven into our hearts. Which is that when we chain to our service strange and gigantic natural forces and adapt our social life to the more convenient forms thereby made possible,,- we involve ourselves in new risks and assume new responsib'ilities a The old ’bus and horse-tram • services had their drawbacks, and were not without their accidents, hut man was .not so helpless beforo them

when'something went wrong. The story of the ’bus driver who came safely down Upper Queen street with a broken brake, by crowding his Wheels against the kerbing, is one of the legends of Auckland, And it is comparatively yesterday that a plucky, and cool-headed horse-car-driver made a heroic and almost successful attempt to drive his ear

safely down Wellesley street after a similar accident. But when we adopt elcetricity as a motor, and find out tiie convenience of large and heavy ears,- we depend entirely upon formal mechanism and upon the formal uses of it. Upon our railways, upon our steamships, upon our tramways, we are perpetually forced to remember this, are being continually compelled to bear in mind that our self-protection demands the most minute and stringent discipline and inspection. Regulations which may at first sight appear tyrannical, and which are usually more strongly objected to by, the public iiy whose interest they are made than by, those whose occupation acquaints them with the imperative need for caution are only common-sense arrangements when life and limb are risked upon the smooth and unerring working of

modern mechanical developments. Every time we step on a tramcar, no less than when we step on a train or steamship, we place ourselves completely in the hands of those who have made modern transit work their And as we have a right on the one hand to expect and insist that nothing shall be left undone that makes for our safety and security, they on the other hand have a right to expect and insist on cheerful and loyal submission to those regulations.