A STEAM-TUG SERVICE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4131, 17 June 1874, Page 3

A STEAM-TUG SERVICE.

TO THE EDITOB. Sib, —When are we to have a steam-tug in the harbor is a question which recent occurrences have caused to bo frequently asked. One day we have an immigrant ship, after a long and weary passage, arrived off the Hoads; the pilot is on board, but the wind is too strong ahead even for his skill to bring her in, though ho can bring her near enough to signal “ All well—short of food.” By-and-bye the sky shows that a northerly gale is browing, before which the ship must be driven far from the port she has neared after a long voyage—a hard fate for her 300 passengers. Now is the time to send out a steamer, to bring her in and have her moored and anchored before the wind freshens too strong. The ship signals for one, but anxious and willing as the harbor authorities are to do everything in their power for vessels entering the harbor, there is nothing to send out, and, if there were, a heavy sum would have to be paid as charter-money. So the answer is sent hack, and there is no help for it but to bo buffeted about in the Strait, across to Cloudy Bay, back again, tossing and laboring in a heavy cross sea in the Strait; blown about by a head wind for two days, until at last it becomes hopeless, and a steamer •which happens to bo alongside the wharf has to be specially chartered and sent out to tow the ship in after all. A day or two afterwards, when daylight breaks, a barque is seen in a very crippled dismasted state, anchored far down the hay. She has no boats, all having boon washed away in the gale in which her spars were lost ; a gale is blowing, with some sea, in the harbor, and the watermen, Custom House boatmen, and inner pilot boat's crew, do not care to face the weather, and no communication takes place until the following morning. Here again a steam-tug would have been useful. A day or two afterwards again, signals are run up, one upon the other, that a barque is on the rooks at the Heads, that she is sinking, that her crew aro in danger. It is not known for the first few minutes whether she is an immigrant ship, aud everyone is asking how her living freight is to he saved. Oh! the Waipara happened to bo going out an hour or so beforehand, and sho is pretty sure to be alongside ! Besides, wo have only got the Otago in tbo harbor, and it will not do to charter a big Melbourne steamer, so the

wrecked people must take their chance. Here again a steamtug, in all humanity, should have been in harbor, ready to proceed as soon as steam could be got up. These three instances show the great uses which a tug in Port Nicholson would subserve, no less than the urgent necessity which exists for one. The great objection, and the most frequent, urged against the subsidizing of a tug is, that the trade of Wellington is not sufficient to justify the expense; that there would bo very little work as a rule, and that for 300 out of the 365 days of the year, the tug's duties would be a sinecure. But, besides the fact that the trade is increasing at a very rapid rate, which is sufficient answer in itself, trie question of expense—and it is here the shoe seems to pinch—is one that would be very much diminished by the willing contributions of large shipowners, the subsidy which the Government could not refuse, and the dues from the ships that are towed in. It is not only English ships we want a tug for. Newcastle barques or coasting vessels, in the face of impending headwinds or storms, or when iu distress, would give anything almost f<?r the help of steam, and iu some cases life would bo saved by it. Our harbor and immigration authorities would not have to beat up and down the harbor in small boats, and suffer the discomfort of being drenched with sea-water in addition to their other onerous duties as tI’.CJ ].'ass on their daily trips to Somes Island and back when a vessel is quarantined, or even when she is lying where the La Hogue first anchored. It is but a lame excuse to say that Wellington, being the head quarters of the Lima, sufficient provision exists in her. The Luna is often away for weeks together, during which emergencies may arise. In the cases of the Wenningtou, the Chevert, and the Earl of Southesk, the Luna was totally unavailable, her boilers being in pieces. Looking to the present condition of tliis port, its harbor requirements, its increasing commerce, and the constant arrival of immigrant ships, the primary and most important need, as urgent as it is evident, is that we should have a steam-tug of considerable horsepower constantly stationed iu the harbor. It cannot bo put off long, and we may just as well have it at once and face the expense, which would not be found a very serious thing if it were fairly looked at,—l am, &c. Caloric. June IGth.