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Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 79, 13 July 1878, Page 2

It is rather; aiv unlucky matter for Mr ;, Gross that the barque Elizabeth should hare arrived m the polony at the inopportune time when the un veracious, statements madeby him are ripe m the minds , of i the public, for the very peculiar circumstances connected with the charter of the vessel 'must be a sad blowr to that highly imaginative gehtleniani and those,. who. are so loud m the praises of Wanganui as aport. Words • are cheap to an unscruplous orator ; it is one thing to! make assertions, but a totally different matter to prove their accuracy; and it is somelimes -very inconvenient even to have, their value tested. It is y.ery . easy for Mr Gross, or any other wind-bag who may .attend a meeting, to draw largely uppn their imagination for their facts, but if such utfcerances.were worthy of credence they would bp". calculated not only to lead +6* deception, but to positive disaster. 'Fortunately the effects of Mr. Cross's statements— made either through sheeXignWahce- or wilful misrepresenta- 1 tion^h&ve. been nullified by the" action jtalcen-by the settled of this county,: but to show. <td what calamities such unwarrantable and: unreliable data might lead, we will give some particulars with regard to 'fehe barque Elizabeth. The" vessel was chartered m Glasgow for the. conveyance, of the plant for the Wanganui Gas "Works, and loaded with a.dead weight cargo, she drew on leaving Home no less than thirteen feet six inches of water. She left the former port on the 14th of March last; and on the 2nd of May sprung a leak, so that for sixty-eight : days, with but a crew of ten men, she had to^be-piimped night and day to keep her afloat. OriTuesday last, : after a most tedious -voyage Wellington was reached, the vessel then making -water at the rate of four inches per hour. Had she continued her journey to ' Wanganui, and snercedcd.in reaching her destination, it would be a matter 6f interest to discover how she ' coTlid be expected— drawing as she did m her then sunken condition- considerably over thirteen feet — to cross' a Imr upon which it is notorious there is not more than a depth ; of: twelve feet. / Had the vessel been staunch arid sound, the experiences of theMalay ; would; have to be repeated, and, Uke.,- ...Mr ,'Mi.cawber, the captain would "bo comi)elled :to wait patiently

for something to turn up, or the visitation oE a tidal wavo to lift him over the stile. Fortunately for the owners of the vessel aud the cargo, the Elizabeth was unable to attempt to reach the port for which she was chartered, and had she done so m her then leaky condition, she would be now lying outside the bar, if at all visible over water, a lasting monument and victim of misrepresentation. It may tickle the fancy of the "Wanganuites to refer m grandiloquent terms to the capacity of the port for receiving ships direct from Home, but certainly they are not happy m their past experience ; and we imagine that aEter this second proof to the contrary,' they would begin to realise the fact that Wanganui is not yet the Liverpool of the North Island. We perfoctly agree with our contemporary, the " New Zealander," that the agents m Glasgow should have been • advised of the fact that ships drawing over twelve feet could not cross the. bar, and that the strictest inquiry * should be made into the cause of the misrepresentation.