THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATRDAY, APRIL 23, 1910. CHARTING THE OCEAN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10026, 23 April 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATRDAY, APRIL 23, 1910. CHARTING THE OCEAN.

The comment of: the London "Standard" upon the verdict of the Pericles inquiry is somewhat partial in its suggestion tnat it is only ''missing" Australasian vessels which may have struck unchartered rocks. The recent ; experiences of the Kaipara, Waikare and Pericles disproves this contention. No doubt this striking of uncharted pinnacle reefs may well be the cause of the regrettable word "missing" in all parts of the world. But it ; will not be disputed that the longer waters are in constant use and the more careful the survey work of the j i authorities the less likelihood is there of concealed and unknown dangers. New coasts have not the advantage of the age-long experience which older countries have bought at such fearful cost, and we can only hope to make our charts perfect by slow degrees. It is inevitable that certain risks must .be. en-j countered, though we should make } every effort to reduce them as j much and as swifcly as possible. We. must reluctantly admit,, who-

ever, that the colonial mind is so accustomed to "risks" that our colonial puhlic do not appear to be conscious of the imperative need for carefully and immediately investigating every report or suspicion of : uncharted rocks. This carelessness is not apparently confined to one port or coast, but is more or less common to all, the only exceptions being where enthusiastic individuals, whose very dreams are of rocks and lights, are in authority. If the public woald take mere interest in the matter and would realise the price paid for incomplete charting there would be fewer "missing" ships and much saving of valuable property and still more precious lives. The Sdyney "Daily Telegraph." referring to this question, says: —'"in daylight, miles off the coast, in what was reasonably supposed to be safe water, the Pericles struck something, was punctured, and 'in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.' That is the story of the disaster as we know it, and as It must stand unless there is any coptradictiou or variation of it. Unquestionably it is a disquieting story. The captain of the Pericles, i a well-proved, capable navigator and seaman, wa3 making his eightyfirst voyage from Australia to England— that is to say, eighty times had be carried his ship to and fro with never a mishap in that region, and tnea he encounters, apparently, a sunken rock which the sailers and steamers of a century had escaped. For a plausible explanation of this we need only remember how wide is the ocean, how possible it must be for thousands of ships to evade the piercing rock which the unlucky one will run on to. Possibly that accounts foe the Pericles disaster. But in any case we can neither marvel at nor complain of the proposal to raise rates in view of the upraising of a new darger factor. The remedy against that is to remove the cause as far as mav be practicable, if there are uncharted rocks, presumably they can be located; if there are not, that fact can be established. The matter is one for scientific and exhaustive investigation." This reasoning in view of the Kaipara and Waikare mishaps undoubtedly applies equally to New Zealand as to Australian waters.