The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1913. OUR ROADSTEAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 308, 21 May 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1913. OUR ROADSTEAD.

We trust the Harbor Board will take steps to disabuse the mind of Captain Halsey, of H.M.S. New Zealand, of the misapprehension under which he is laboring regarding the condition of the Moturoa roadstead. It is very unfortunate that the harbor improvement works are not sufficiently advanced to enable vessels of sucli a size as the warship to berth in comfort and safety behind the breakwater, and that the vessel will be obliged to lie in the open roadstead during her all too brief stay here, but that there i 3 any danger in her doing so, as Captain Halsey seems to apprehend, is not the case. Captain Halsey says in his letter to the Defence Minister, transmitted to the Member for Taranaki: "The safety of the ship I command demands that no unnecessary risks be run, and New Plymouth is not a suitable or safe anchorage for a ship of this size." The captain, in saying this, is doing the place a grave injustice, and we have not the slightest doubt that when he be-, comes personally acquainted with the conditions that exist he will unconditionally retract what lie has said. We do not desire to question his nautical knowledge or his judgment, but we have no hesitation in saying that his source of information "regarding the New Plymouth roadstead is totally unreliable. As a matter of fact, the roadstead here is we of the safest in New Zealand waters. For nearly a fortnight H.M.S. Cambrian lay there in perfect safety, as many boats had done before. Of course H.M.S. • New Zealand is a much bigger vessel than the Cambrian, but if the New Zealand, can be trusted to lie off Napier and Gisborne, surely she can be trusted to anchor off New Plymouth, where the seas are never so rough as they are on the other coast. It is almost an impossibility for any vessel, big or [ little, to go ashore, even in the worst I possible conditions, at Moturoa, as its > past immunity from marine mishaps conclusively proves. And this cannot be said of some of the places the Dreadnought has visited and contemplates visiting. We realise that comparisons are odious, but one is compelled to institute them when our port has been— - unconsciously, we feel sure—called into question by an officer occupying such an important position as does Captain Halsey. We do not want to sail under J false colors or exaggerate in any way J the qualities of our roadstead, nor do ! we, as a town, wish to be a party to endangering the safety of his fine charge in any way, but we surely are justified in setting before Captain Halsey the true position and asking him to put the port right in the eyes of those who are not cognisant of the present safety of both, the harbor and the roadstead.