Hawke's Bay Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY. THURSDAY, 28TH FEBRUARY, 1867. THE LATE WRECK.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 457, 28 February 1867, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY.

THURSDAY, 28TH FEBRUARY, 1867. THE LATE WRECK.

“ KnlUus addict us jurare in verba magis/n."

Disasters such as that recorded in our last issue as having befallen a steam vessel on our coast, where, without previous warning, a ship is destroyed and several valuable lives sacrificed,- directs our attention forcibly to the state of our coasts as regards the warning, in cases of danger, to strange vessels visiting our port or passing along our shores. We do not believe that any blame attaches to the captain of the lost vessel in the course he thought best to take on the night of the accident, as we may take it for granted that he acted as he believed best under the circumstances. The course taken was, ia all probability, sufficiently safe in daylight and fine weather, and as it was probably well entered on before the sky became overcast and the storm arose, it must have been difficult or unadvisable to have attempted a retreat, even supposing it possible to have succeeded. The increasing storm seems to have brought the vessel much nearer in shore than was at first supposed, aud the intense darkness of the night prevented any sign of breakers being observed from the vessel before she ran on the rocks—with the fatal effects of which 'Ve are all acquainted.

Is seems to us tuat there are on the Ilawke's Bay coast. Qud. in its neighborhood, several places where lights should be placed as a warning to mariners. It is not long since a vessel lay-off the outside the Bluff for a good many hours, her master not being acquainted with the necessary information respecting the Port: and mere recently we were informed by the, uiastvi of a coasting vessel inatf ar-

riving in the bay at night, the want of a iiglrt on the Bluff was most severely felt, as no lights were seen at the port, and the vessel was brought into the' Iron Pot by almost mere accident on the top of the rising tide. Now the existence of a light on the Bluff would have given this man the necessary confidence attendant on the knowledge of his position. Indeed, a light on the Bluff, and

another on Portland Island, have long been an acknowledged necessity, for the safe guidance of vessels wishing to enter the Hawke’s Bay roadstead at night, and they would, by the confidence they would impart to the minds of commanders, ensure the safety of vessels now in jeopardy. We foresee that we shall be met by the plea of economy, and the cry of being unable to afford these luxuries, but we reply that when we complain of the cost of Government it is not in this direction that we find fault, but in quite another. It is not the funds expended in important or useful public undertakings, but that swallowed up by so great a number of public ser vants, whose services for the most part could be well dispensed, and yet who cost the colony, in salaries alone, a sura per annum far. in excess of all that would be required to pay thetinterest of and provide the sinking fund for payment of our enormous Colonial debt, and which is a drag upon our progress and prosperity. Money judiciously expended in undertakings calculated to save life and property on the other hand favors it, and is in the liinliacf COTICA vpnroductive. u ‘6 u '-“‘