THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out Faciam." FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1861.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 37, 27 December 1861, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out Faciam." FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1861.

As week after week one reads the intelligence of disastrous wrecks that occur to vessels sailing or steaming between Otago and the ports of the neighbouring colonies, the consideration obtrudes, itself—are these occurrences due to natural laws, or are they promoted by carelessness or negligence ? "To every resident in Otago .the subject is one of scarcely-to-be-ex-aggerated moment. A place easily gains a reputation as dangerous to navigation, whether that danger lies immediately in the Port itself, or in the approaches to it, and the effects of such reputation are not slow in making themselves felt." Insurance offices grow shy, and ask enormous per centages; ship owners, ever ready to listen to fears, ask to have their alarms salvered over with golden freights; captains, ever averse to losing ships, grumble at being required to undertake perilous voyages ; and, in short, the shipping trade of a ?place dies away far more readily than it springs into existence. Quite true, gold can do anything, and when ships with almost unlimited capacity can find passengers who will pay from six to sixteen pounds for a few square feet of room for a few days, they will not be slow to encounter any peril. A good freight will tempt a vessel through the Torres Straits at the most dangerous season, or will even induce it to run the gauntlet through the New River (so called) passage. Thus, though the people of Otago need not fear a lack of shipping when persons are ready to pay any money for freight or passage, the time may come, when the excitement has worn away when they will find themselves dwelling- in perfect isolation in their " sea girt home."

The loss of si,ich vessels as the " Victory," " Pirate," ■ " Oscar," "Don Pedro," and " Tyne," within a few .weeks of each other, —all on their way from Otago to neighbouring ports—is likely to create a feeling of utter dismay in the minds of shipowners and insurers as soon as the present brief. season of demand is over. True, the cause that has conduced to the loss of each vessel has, to a certain extent, been elucidated, and does not suggest any peculiar danger in Otago or its vicinage, but the fact of the losses remains, and their origin is not in one instance explained by the skilled enquiries which alone to nautical minds would prove satisfactory. Magisterial investigations, though sufficiently conclusive to persons on shore, are utterly inconclusive to those T-ho regard nautical matters with eyes nautical. No one more than ourselves was glad that Captain Steuart, of the "Oscar," was ableto improvise some sort of tribunal of enquiry out of the complaisance of Southland magistrates, who with infinite good nature consented to adjudicate on a case over which they admitted they had no jurisdiction. Captain Stuart's exoneration was complete: no one can attribute the loss of the ill-fated " Oscar" to want of care, discretion, or judgment on his part, but he himself wijl admit that it was a farce to enter into the technical causes that led to the loss of his steamer before a Bench of "land-lubbers" who probably would not know the difference between a barque and a ship, or a paddle and a screw steamer. Enquiries of this kin.i demand skilled knowledge, and tliis they always have applied to them in Great Britain, and. in most of the colonial ports of the Empire. A loss of a vessel at home is immediately followed by an order from the Board of Trade to make an official investigation into the causes that have led to it,- under the clauses of the Merchant's Shipping Act. Parts of the Act apply here, but for reasons we are at a loss to discover, the portions which give power to make official investigation into the causes of the loss of ships, have Aiever been adopted. Had they been so the losses of the " Victory" and the "Oscar" would not have been left to the discussion of a Police Court, and the wrecks of the " Pirate," the " Don Pedro," and the uTyne v would not have been allowed to pass without any enquiry. We make no accusations or reflection against any person or persons whatever ; if the?:.-*: vessels have fallen a sacrifice to the uirlmient caprices of natural causes a iwne, so lei it be; but if human agencies could have prevented! them, let the fact be recorded in torni'. whi'h ' will command the attention of those who any ■<

gather from the experi'iirj th.; luo-.iis of ' avoiding a repetition of like' di«asLv.-r.s. We, believe a single stroke of the pen on the part ;c

of Sir George Grey would put in force,, by proclamation, the clauses of the Shipping Act, under which proper investigations could be made, and the merchants of Otago, who suffer most by these occurrences, will have themselves to blame if they do not petition his Excellency to immediately pass them into law. They will belie the character of the race from which they spring, and of which they are the humble representatives in this far off land— the Merchant Princes of Great Britain —if they allow the temporary temptations of profitable business to make them forget the importance of guarding the reputation of the Port from which all their trade arises.. What would not a Liverpool merchant dp to effect an improvement in his port, that would take off a single shilling per cent., in the insurance, and shall the Merchants of Dunedin stand calmly aye, and indifferently by, and see ship after ship destroyed and take no steps to ascertain the causes and devise remedies against their repetition? We are quite aware of the constitutional apathy with which they regard matters which are generally regarded by their class as of the highest moment; we know that they are indifferent to the fact that whilst their warehouses are piled with scores of thousands of pounds' worth of goods, there is a total absence of any means to check or repress the ravages of fire; we know they are content to allow the chief article of export to rate under its proper value—that they are careless as to whether the exchange is against them when tlie balance of trade should make it in their favour; —we know all this, but still we venture to throw in a humble petition that they will endeavour to prevent their chief port from being " banned and barred" to the rest of the world by the repetition of disasters that let us hope might be mitigated, if not altogether prevented, by the interposition of proper remedial agencies.

ARRIVAL OF THE ESCORT WITH 14,614 ozs. The Escort arrived in town yesterday afternoon about half-past 3 o'clock, with 14,614 ozs. 10 dwts. of g01d^—10,679 ozs. 10 dwts. being the produce of Gabriel's Gully, and 3935 ozs. that of Waitahuna.