New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4970, 26 February 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1877.

The lamentable accident in the harbor on Saturday morning last was by the nature of the surrounding circumstances rendered even more awful in the impressions created by it than it would have been had it happened without such appalling surroundings. The utter ignorance of the officers and passengers of the Taupo of the fearful disaster which was imminent, that war of the elements which prevented the unfortunate survivor of the accident from receiving a warning that might have, indeed in all probability would have, enabled him to have saved his wife and child; that same storm, and wind, and rushing waters which barred all human help, because it barred all knowledge of the disaster; these things combined to intensify the shock created by the disaster. It was not in the open sea, or in a place inaccessible to assistance under ordinary circumstances that the collision between the Taupo and the Eli Whitney occurred, but in a harbor thick with shipping, close to a wharf whereon a few brief minutes previously a number of people had been gathered together, and on which not a few must have been standing at the very time it happened, and yet, for all purposes of aid, for all possibility of the sufferers devising some plans for their own safety, it might as well have taken place on the wide sea and with instant effect. It is evident that the shock of the collision was not felt by those on board the Eli Whitney, and that flie first intimation of danger they received came simultaneously with the danger itself in its most appalling form. It was this that on Saturday caused the sad reflection to so many that but a few hours previously, within eight and hearing of the town, two lives had drifted to destruction without possibility of help. The Coroner's inquest which will be held to-day must of necessity be adjourned until the evidence of Captain Carey and others on board the Taupo can be taken. In the meantime the testimony that is accessible will of course be received, but no decision can be ; at present arrived at. Until such decision has been come to, it would be impossible to write in a commentary manner on the causes which it is presumed led to the deaths of Mrs. Davey and her child. But it may be said that the present manner of utilising the numerous coal-hulks in this harbor is fraught with danger, and the accident which has happened can only cause a feeling of surprise that such accidents have not happened before. Owing to its geographical situation, the arrivals and departures of steamers are more numerous and more frequent here probably than in any other port in the colony; and their demands for coal are also more frequent. Now it would seem that in respect to these coal-hulks only the last of these considerations has been attended to. The hulks are continually moored in the fairway, presumably owing to the greater facilities thus afforded for receiving coals from incoming vessels, or for distributing coals to the steamers requiring them. But because no serious accident from this mode of proceeding had as yet occurred, the first consideration, namely, the frequency with which steamers come into or go out of harbor, and the fact that they often arrive or depart at night, has been lost sight of, and so no one has thought upon the obstacles to navigation and the invitations to accident which were being afforded. Probably, if a definite area, reducing the chances of collision to a minimum, were fixed upon for the mooring of the coal-hulks, and if steamers and vessels were made to go alongside the hulks to discharge or receive instead of having the hulks brought alongside of. them, such would meet with an outburst of indignation about hampering trade and interfering with commerce, and for the convenience of moving the hulks it would be maintained that they should still remain scattered up and down the fairway in the track'of steamers approaching or leaving the wharf. But we catfnofavoid: the conclusion, nevertheless, that while the present system-is maintained damage to property' arid loss to life is almost courted. Indeed, in this connection it is only necessary ~to state that the complaints of masters of steamers and sailing vessels using this port as to the prevailing mode of mooring the coal-hulks have been loud and many.