New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4132, 18 June 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1875.

It is, wo think, full time to inquire what is the precise state of the pilotage arrangements of the port of Wellington at this moment ? A few days ago the public were assured, on behalf of the Provincial Government, that the arrangements were perfect. There were not only properly authorised pilots, but every man in the pilot’s boat, and every officer of the Harbor Department, was a pilot, capable of taking vessels in or out ; and therefore no such contingency could possibly arise as an inward-bound ship being left to find her own way in, or to beat about outside the entrance until a pilot could be sent out to her. That assurance, however, it is now found, was given without due consideration, and without so much as a suspicion that the Provincial Government could possibly so mismanage things as to leave the port without a pilot, or, at best, with one only to carry on the whole pilotage business of the only harbor in the south portion of the Northern Island. Yet such, it seems, is the case. We find from the list of officers of the Harbor Department given in the Wellington Almanac for the current year that the only pilot is Mr. Holmes, upon whom devolves the whole duty of bringing into port ships requiring the services of a pilot. We shall not go so far as to suppose it possible that he has been left to discharge this onerous duty without being properly licensed. The same authority states that the only “outward pilot” is Mr. Anderson. Unfortunately, however, an inquiring lawyer—probably not unacquainted with the bungling way in which Provincial business has been managed at times—has discovered that Mr. Pilot Anderson has not been licensed, and that the sole authority under which ho has been acting for some time past is no authority at all. The list of pilots, therefore, is reduced to oke ; and the same breath which has thus disposed of Mr. Anderson has blown away the figment that the harbormaster, the coxswain of the pilot’s boat, and every member of the pilot’s crew could take upon him the responsibilities of a pilot if his services were required. The Provincial Government’s arrangements, as we have said, provide for only one pilot for Wellington at present; and the local Executive may rejoice not a little that the discovery has been made before the occurrence of an accident to a ship in charge of any one of those unlicensed persons. But the bungling which has left an important service in this singularly inefficient state is on a par with the care which has been shown in the management of the other affairs of the harbor. When the ship Golden Sea was towed in from the quarantine ground, and the accident occurred which has since led to those proceedings in which Mr. Anderson’s want of proper authority to act as a pilot was discovered, a harbor boat sent out to carry a warp from the ship to the wharf was managed by one old man, who appeared unable to control his skiff, and for a considerable time could not manage it so that a seaman from the ship could drop into it with the end of a lino. The result was the collision with tlio Anno Molhuish, which at one time threatened to be much more serious than it proved. More serious it would have been but for the fortunate chance that the Golden Sea’s jibboom forded the rigging of the barque, and the ship’s way was thus stopped before a collision, otherwise inevitable, took place. Where the responsibility for the damage done may ultimately bo found to be we have no wish to discuss. The damages and costs have been paid by the master of the ship, and possibly the Provincial authorities may bo fortunate enough to hoar no more about it as Captain Strachan has sailed on a protracted voyage ; but there does apparently lie a moral if not a legal responsibility for any damage that may occur upon those who permitted, an unlicensed person to bring a ship up to the wharf. But the economy, frugality, indifference, or negligence shown in these imperfect arrangements runs through the whole provisions of the Provincial Government with reference to the harbor. It must bo accepted as a fact that a boat fit to go out in a little_ bit of a sea is not in possession of the Harbor Department. On

what other supposition can the public account for the disgraceful fact that a foreign barque, in a distressed state, exhibiting signals which no one connected with the department appeared to bo able to read, should have been left for nearly a day and a half, at an anchorage to which she had found her way in the night without the help of a pilot, unvisited by any of the harbor authorities ? The explanation given at the time was that there was no available boat, and, if there had been, that there was no crew to man her—though a crow would undoubtedly have been found in snob a case if volunteers had been called for from the vessels at the wharf, or even the loungers on the pier. Nothing of the sort was done ; and curiosity on the part of the spectators was left to exhaust itself without the slightest effort having been made by those in authority to ascertain who the stranger was, what her signals meant, and whether she was in want of immediate assistance or no. The crippled condition of the ship was indicative of accident on board, and, for anything the authorities know to the contrary, the first want of the distressed mariners might have been a surgeon to render aid to seriously injured men or women. The port, however, was incapable of ascertaining whether such assistance, or help of any kind, was needed, until the wind fell and the waters of the harbor became once more almost as calm as those of a millpond. What would have occurred if there had been a wreck, and the services of a life-boat had been' required, passes conjecture. What sort of management, also, may wo ask, was that which permitted the laying down of permanent moorings in the track of vessels, and in such shallow water that a steamer, a regular trader to the port, fouled them a few days ago, dragged them with her to the wharf, and only by chance escaped from serious accident to her screw shaft or her propeller 1 On whom, had the Albion broken her shaft, or lost one or all of the blades of her screw, would the loss have fallen 1 Nor have the authorities made any proper provision for masters and seamen on shore. In ports of any importance there is always some place of meeting—some properly appointed shipping-place—whore men can bo discharged or engaged, and whore captains may meet agents desirous of engaging room for freight. The provision hero for such business is of the most primitive sort, while no care whatever has been taken for the lodging of strange seamen, who are left, without counsel, to find whatever accommodation they can in our overcrowded town. The whole arrangements for the harbor,‘indeed, have been framed without intelligence on the part of the responsible authorities. We do not mean the officials employed. There is no doubt they do their duty conscientiously, and to the full extent of their power. The blame lies with more responsible persons. And while we thus point out the detects of the harbor arrangements, we by no means forget the proverb of the dirty bird. The dirtiest bird, however, is that which sees its own nest in a foul state, and makes no effort to cleanse it. It is easy to shut eyes and endeavor to persuade or be persuaded that everything is as it should be ; but it is not so easy to blind visitors to the defects of the port, or to satisfy those who have experienced them that all is as it should bo in the management of the harbor of Wellington.