The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1863.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 76, 28 July 1863, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1863.

The Provincial Government have at length contrived, whether by a wonderful exercise of judgment or by happy accident, we know not, to do something fbr the commercial interest and the Port of Invercargill. They have in a lucid momcufc entered into a contract with Messrs M Meckan, Blackwood and Co., of Melbourne, whereby it" has been provided tliat the s.s. Gothenburg shall once a month run between Melbourne and the New River, conveying mails, passengers, and mer chandise. They have ensured, or endeavored to ensure, for Southland

something more than a casuaLcouimuriicatibn with the sister colonyi" It has been ttheir aim to annihilate* the perhaps, and to fuse the possibility into the probability, nay^ the certainty. ! Eager shippevs or anxious passengers are no longer to dwell upon .the eventuality of the Alhambra or the Aldinga turning up with the suddenness and unpreparedn.ss of the demon in the pantomime, but may henceforth safely rely upon secure cargi -room and uuoccupied berths by the Gothenburg on the 23id or 24th of each month. It is needless to descant upon the advan--1 tage and increased commercial facilities likely to accrue to Southland from 1 the ratification of the contract, for they have been long known, and greatly w:-hed for ; moreover, this community has not required spectacles to see the greater prospeiity which a similar contract has brougiit to the doors of a neighboring Province. By regular, almost punctual, steam commucation with Melbourne, Otago has progressed marvellously ; and now the smaller Provinces can deduce a comfortable sequitur from the larger. Hijt the contract is not all plain sailing. Was there ever a contract that had not. its man-traps and its hidden pitfalls? There are reservatory clauses, over which tlie reader, though he master the chief features, cannot but stumble — clauses that unless carefully prepared for, bring the unwary to grief. Not the least to be dreaded, and of which to be forewarned is the following :— *** That the said ship shall not at any time be required to wait off the port of New River aforesaid in the event of there being no pilot in attendance there, ready to take her into the same port on her arrival abreast of the heads of the said port, and in this event slit shall be at liberty to proceed to the Bluff and thence to any other port or place in New Zealand." As to the tenor of this clause there can be no mistake. If at any time, and by any unfortunate chance, the pilot be engaged upon another vessel or otherwise absent, then for this trip the Gothenburg is lost to Invercargill, the contract for the time nullified, and the public convenience wiU proportionately suffer.

This is the clause to bo guarded against, the evil to be funded off, and how ? Why, of course by the pilot being at his post, is the ostensible answer. But then there is such a thing as reckoning without your pilot. How if there be a press of shipping arrivals, if the existing pilots know uot which way to turn. How if the Mary and the Isabella and the Favorite and a host of others at one and the same time require a pilot, and upon their heels arrives the Gothenburg? Mr. Bray and his assistants are no doubt good men and true in their pr<> essioti, but however zer.lous they may he, they are not gifted with omnipresence, aud we fear that in the case we pur, the Captain of the Gothenburg would listen to the impatient voices ofhis Duue.liu passengers, and find his conscience salved with a half-hour's loiter in the lazy waters of the New liiver. Then would follow the remonstrances of the indignant public. Everybody and everything—pilot, captain, and steamer would be indiscriminately aud unjustly blamed, and as for the contracting parties — the Melbourne firm and the Provincial Government — they would be figuratively stoned. There would be no mercy for the violation of a contract upon the successful working of which people have already begun to hug themselves. But again. IW is it to be avoided, whose would he the particular blame of a failure ? There is required no Damascus blade to cut the Gordian knot. Frequently and for many a day past have merchants and shipowners had to complain of the want of sufficient pilot assistance afForded by the Provincial Go vernment. Representations to this effect have unceasingly been made, and the aid of the press invoked — but all in vain; the Government, cloaked witli the idea that they alone know the necessities of the Province, and that a need which is not first discerned by the eye of circumlocution is no need at all, have closed their ears obstinately to suggestions ancl to demands. " Pilots! you don't want pilots," thoy say, " you are always bothering us about pilots ; when we, in our ineffable wisdom, arrive at the conclusion that an addi tional pilot really i.s wanted, you «hall have one ; but till then hark as you may in front of our elegant buildings \ you shall not have admittance." When the constituted Dii ex machina consent to forego the impracticable policy of which we have just given a colloquial specimen, then, and only then, will the contingency contained in the clause quoted, be fairly and successfully met. I It is generally ace mnt'ed, such is the | inconsistency of human nature, that man's life would be miserable without a grievance. Give a farmer perpetual seasonable weather and no cause to grumble about the crops, and part of his joy in existence would be gone. Men are disappointed if they have no grievance — they must grieve or die ; but these are tbe lesser grievances which only affect individuals and not communities. Grievances which affect bodies of men — whole populations — cease to be tinged with the pleasureable. They cannot be permitted to go on — social disorder and discontent with the Government under which they occur become the result. Of this character is the grievance which we have just been ventilating. Great disappointtnant and angry clamor have iollowed the continued numerical imfiieiency of the pilot staff. Greater disappointment and more clamor will ensue Upon the first occasion of the Gothenburg, through the absence of a pilot, paying only an express-engine visit to the New Kiver. A commercial population slighted and

the interests Jp? a provihee^negjected are, though even in the simpler matter of /pilotage, | metal heavy enoiigti to storm even i '■ /Provincial -Govern ment fortifications. Now of never if they wish to retain one tittle of that popularity which they imagine (some say, without any foundation) they enjoy — if they would save themselves from tbe arrows of public opinion, the Government must place the pilot staff of Southland upon a looting, which will satisfy the necessities that have arisen and wili daily continue to arise from extended and extending shipping traffic.