Spirit of the Press.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 338, 4 January 1866, Page 1

Spirit of the Press.

NARROW ESCAPE OP THE s.a. TARARDA FROM SHIPWRECK. (From the Nelson Examiner, 23rd December.) The narrow escape which the fine steamer Tararua had from shipwreck, on Wednesday morning last, at Cape Farewell, must not he dismissed with a simple notice of the occurrence. Had the vessel been wrecked, or had she sustained any serious damage by going on shore, an jhquiry into the cause of the accident would have been made, and the public would have learnt the particulars; but as the steamer was most fortunately got off the beach upon which she was blindly run, without sustaining any material damage, and with the loss only of her deck cargo, unless the press take the subject up, nothing more will be heard of it, and the warning it should be made to serve will be lost. It is unfortunately too common, in accidents of this nature, to treat them simply as accidents and to say but little about them. There is not always a sufficiently searching investigation into the causes of such occurrences, and, through a sort of false delicacy, or foolish good nature, officers of vessels, who are highly culpable, are screened from the blame their conduct really merits. A man who has in his charge the lives of a large number of his fellow-creatures—to say nothing of the property likewise entrusted to him—should err rather on the side of overvigilance than neglect. Yet in the instance of the large steamers which have been lost on the coast of New Zealand, the cause has always been attributable to the carelessness of those in command, and not to rough weather, which is supposed to be the chief cause of-tltiogoi* to sbippkigi^Tha*-wreck' of the William Denny, near the North Cape ; the Victory, a little below Otago Heads; the Lord Worsley, on the beach south of Taranaki ; and the White Swan, north of Castle Point, are all instances of vessels being run carelessly on shore. The wreck of the Scotia was an equally culpable and unnecessary act ; and the last, and as far as life was concerned most fatal of all these accidents to steamers, the wreck of the City of Dunedin, was also, there can be little doubt, an act of carelessness, as she must have been lost througK hugging too closely a dangerous shore an hour after leaving Wellington. That the Tararua is not added to the list of wrecks on the coast of New Zealand, is certainly not through the foresight of the person principally responsible for the safety of the vessel. It is with great reluctance we write on the subject in this manner, but a sense of duty compels us to do so. Captain Gardyne bears the reputation of being a good officer, and we have no wish to detract from the estimation in which he is held, but the fact of running his vessel on shore, and imperilling the lives of from seventy to eighty persons, and the safety of property of the value of at least jg 50,000, must not be blinked, and the facts, such as they are, should be told. The Tararua left Sydney on Friday, the 15th instant, at noon, and after Saturday, no sights could be got through the prevalence of thick easterly weather. In common with the general rule of masters of steamers running between Sydney and Nelson, Captain Gardyne made a direct course for Cape Farewell, which he expected to make on the morning of the 20th. The steamer Otago, btLnging to the same company, has made the run in considerably less time, as we believe also has the Tarurua, when more favored by weather. On approaching the coast of New Zealand, the wind, which had been, as we have said, easterly during the passage, blew from the north, so that the vessel had a favorable wind. The night of the 19th was exceedingly thick, with light rain ; but, although the land was known to be at no great distance, no steps appear lo have been taken to guard against accident, should the vessel have overrun the distance given by the log in a voyage of upwards of 1,000 miles. Although steering direct for a bold shore, and the night so thick that nothing could be distinguished at a distance of three ships’ lengths, the commander of the steamer relied

securely on his log, and does not appear to have made the slightest allowance for any possible mistake. Captain Gardyue did not remain on deck all night, as is often, and indeed we may say generally done by commanders of steamers when, approaching the land in such weather, although the customary order to be called every second hour, and furnished with a report, had been given to the watch. Fortunately, this sense of security did hot prevail with all on board, and to this fact the safety of the vessel is wholly to be attributed. Mr Gunby, - the, chief engineer, who has been for some years on the- coast, having come out from, England as engineer of the Lord Worsley, felt anxious as to the safety of the ship, knowing that she was approaching the coast, it was his watch below, he remained in the engineroom, and with almost an instinct of what was about to happen while slightly slackening the speed of the ship, kept up a good head of steam to be-prepared for any emergency that might arise. At a quarter past two, the second officer, whose'watch it was on deck, gave the word “ stop her,” and Mr Gunby’s hand was immediately ready'to shut off the steam, while the cry which directly followed, of « full speed astehi ” was as instantly attended to. The vessel was thus checked before she took the beach, for the look-out which bad been kept forward had descried broken water, which led to the orders to stop the vessel, and reverse the engine, and these orders being so promptly ac’,ted upon, the force with which the Tararua took the ground was considerably lessened. Any delay in the engine-room in attending to these commands, would have caused the ship to run so high up the beach that the chance of her ever being got off again would have been exceedingly problematical. As it w a s, tLe vessel grounded so lightly, that it did hot awake many or the passengers, and she was fast only as far as her fore-rigging Most luckily, the tide was rising at the time, and there being a smooth sea, by lightening the vessel of her deck cargo, and making use of her powerful propeller, she was launched after remaing fast for fifty-five minutes. Preparations were made, while the vessel was ou shore, to land the passengers in boats if necessary. The spot where the vessel struck was under the easternmost jknnt of the Cape, and although the cliff there stands high, it could not be seen when the vessel had drawn off a couple or three lengths. After steaming astern for half-an-hour, her head was turned a few points to the North, and when Captain Gardyue thought he could do so with safety, the course of the vessel was changed for Blind Bay, and the weather still remaining thick, the first land sighted was the French Pass. Phe Tararua had an exceedingly heavy cargo on board, principally for this port, and, after discharging yesterday, she was put on shore on Fifeshire Island, and an examiua tion made of her by Capt. Johnston, Govern ment Inspector of steamers. No damage appears to have been sustained by her, and she will therefore proceed on her voyage to Melbourne, via Southern Ports, this day! The question naturally arises, What degree of blame attaches to the Captain of the Tararua for this accident to bis vessel ? That no serious consequences attended it, is fortunate for all who were interested in the welfare of the ship, for the danger was very We are constrained to say, that Gajitain Gardyne is open to grave censure for neglecting the precautions which a prudent man should have taken in his position. Running down dead on the land in a pilchdark night, the speed of the vessel should have been slackened, soundings taken, or the head of the vessel slightly diverted from her course, which would have cleared both Cape and Sandspit. But not one of these precautions was taken. The Captain, when called at two o’clock, a quarter of an hour before the vessel struck, and the character of the night reported to him, gave instructions, it is true, to keep a bright look-out a-head ; but this look out would not have saved the vessel, but for the judicious conduct of the Chief Engineer, who, although off duty, had, we believe, without instructions, slackened the speed of the vessel a couple of hours, and sat prepared to act with promptitude should any thing Jbe required of him. Having said

tms=fflffcli 5 we drop the subject, hoping the lesson this incident teaches will not be thrown away on those who were on board the Tamma, or on the officers of other steamers on the coast. THE ABORIGINES’ PROTECTION 41 SOCIETY. (From the Times, September 23.) A ceetain society, with the doings of which onr readers become periodically acquanted, makes one more appearance before the public morning. In* the last letter of our New Zealand correspondent an address to the Maoris from the Aborigines’ Protection Society, which had been recently received and circulated in the colony, was stigmatised as wicked nonsensical, and worse than seditious. An ex-Miuister.. of the settlement, now in this country, up the charge] by challenging the society to produce the document and submit its contents to the judgment of the public. That challenge has been accepted, apparently in perfect confidence, by the parties put upon their defence, and every reader can now form an opinion of his own. It seems to us that if there is to be such a practice as colonisation, and if the superior or more civilised races of the world are to' do in future as they have done in all past time, the address before us must certainly ■be held liable to severe censure. If the Maoris had the power»of acting on the advice it contains, and could he induced to do so, the British settlers in New Zealand might as well be brought back to this country at once, for the development of the colony would be simply impossible. The settlement could not grow or expand itself even by the fairest means, but wSuld be confined to the strips of territory at present .occupied on-the coast. If the principle were applied tc ~Il r calcoies and to all,, - it is obviously just as applicable to one as to another, there could be no such thing as the settlement or reclamation of new countries anywhere. All nations must confine themselves to their present bounds, and no wild or savage territories could be brought within the pule of civilisation. But according to opinions which have always prevailed and which still prevail, such a principle as this would certainly never be admitted, and the mere statement of it would be enough to convict it of folly. Colonisation necessarily involves the contact and practically the collision, of two races of meu-one superior and one inferior, the inferior is in possession of the soil; the superior gradually supplants it. So it has been everywhere and in all times. It was so in this country, where the Celts dispossessed some earlier inhabitants, and were in turn dispossessed by the Saxons. It was so in all civilised regions of the earth, inobedience to what appears a natural Jaw. Most notably, however, because in our own time, has it been the case in America. That great country has been formed, step by step, in this very fashion. The Bed Indians, perhaps not themselves the first occupants of the continent, have been driven westwards from State to State, till the race, once the lords of the soil, are to be found only in its remotest tracts, and are not safe even there. They have disappeared, and are disappearing before the white man, but the result is the United States. Now, if the Aborigines’ Protection Society had merely occupied itself with? the mitigation ql this inevitable lot, and had sought to impress upon colonizing nations the duty of kindness and chanty to the inferior race, their object would have been highly laudable. That the work of colonization has too- often been carried on in a cruel and high-minded manner is doubtless true, and it should be a recognised obligation in our days to prevent such doings. The Americans have a department of Government especially charged with the supervisions of all transactions with the Indians, and except in some remote districts, where the natives are sanguinary and treaclurous and the settlers few the retirement of one race before the other is unattended with violence or suffering. The process, however, goes irresistibly on. Every State added to the Union was Indian territory not long before, and very little account was taken of the title of these Indians to the plains over which their forefathers had hauled.

la New Zealand, unless the life of the colony is to be cut short, the result must be the same, and it is the fault, or the folly, of the Aborigines’ Protection Society that it not only shuts its eyes toanaturallaw,butactually interferes to the best of its power to prevent its easiest and least oppressive operation. If these philanthropists had urged upon our authorities the expediency of regulating the iheA'itable expansion of the colony, and the duty, for instance, of providing the retreating natives with such allotments and assistance as are given to the Indians in America, they would have done well. If they had argued that a native tribe should receive compensation for his losses, or that a Maori vender should be entitled to the purchase money of land he had sold, they would have done no wrong. But when they actually maintain that no land should pass from the possession of savages to the possession of settlers under any condition whatever, and when they advise the Maoris to act on this principle and to refuse to recede one single step, they commit themsel.es to doctrines which are pa'ptbly nonsensical, and which if viewed by the light of their conse quences, might be described in far stronger terms. Yet this and nothing less, is what they really do. They tell the Maoris that every Maori should be rendered, by native law, unable to dispose of his property even if he wished to do so, and that “ this rule should be made quite strong and safe.” They even warn them against letting land on lease, and recommend that such transactions should be di scout aged. The obvious purpose of such advice is to keep the inferior race where it is, and to restrain the superior race from making its natural advances. What the actual result of such an attempt would be we need not be at the pains of predicting. One of our correspondents admits to us a clear view of the persuasions by which the members of this benevolent society are ac tuated. “ We,” sav r s he, “ are Quixotic enough to believe that the New Zealanders are as justly entitled to their laud as the Duke of Northumberland and the Duke of Bedford are to their estates in England.” The extravagance of this comparison gives an easy clue to the sentiments of the Association. ike title of the New Zealanders to their land is simply that of any savage to the soil on which he happens to be found. In tire case of ihc Maoris we happen to know that they came withiu the last few hundred years to the spot where we now find them, and there, after killing and eating the former proprietors, established themselves in forcible possession. We know likewise, and the Aborigines’ Protection Society appears also to have a glimpse of the fact, that the Maoris themselves cannot at all agree about their own rights, either tribal or personal, to the tracts which they claim. And if our correspondent wishes for any further dissection of the illustration he advanced, we beg to say that English lords who did in past limes what the Maoris habitually do now were pretty sure to lose both their estates and their lives together. Assuming these natives to be genuine landowners and responsible subjects of the Queen, they have forfeited their land scores of times over by rising in arms against the Crown. This is the weak point of the case for the natives, IVe must ask in what political character thev are to be considered. If they are British subjects, differing from the other British subjects simply in extraction and color, we request to know what penalty is their due for armed rebellion. If they differ so greatly from other British subjects as to be allowed to levy war against the Queen whenever they think proper, it can hardly be unreasonable to regard their position as exceptional in other respects also. It is, in truth, a monstrous piece of extravagance to say, not only that these savage tribes have an indefeasible title to all the soil of New Zealand, but that they ought to be maintained in possession of it for ever, to the obstruction of all colonisation- Such a proposition needs no contradiction. It is quite enough to put it in print. The Aborigines’ -Protection Society may soften the natural lot of a race which they confess to be gradually expiring, but they ere not likely to stop the growth of a British colony by such advice as that now made public.