A GRIEVOUS CALAMITY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10611, 18 April 1912, Page 4

A GRIEVOUS CALAMITY.

The, news of- itJio calamity 'which has befallen the Motherland and the "United■ ,-(States,- in ..the loss of so many valuable lives by the wreck of the Titanic, has created profound sorrow and grief throughout New Zealand. Tli© details of the catae-trophe; scant plough they are, leave no doubt but Ithiat the most appalling tragedy in •the history cf the mercaaitile marine .bias- been enacted. ' A mammoth cf the. sea), equipped on a most gorgeous 'scale, carrying a host of Jiving wealth, .has been swiftly but purely sacrificed to the inexorable decree of Fate. The [horrors of the tragedy—.the panicstricken women, the helpless children, the terrified men of affluence and despair—tseehioig refuge where refuge is not to be found, going to eternity in the cold, bleak ocean, form a picture la.t which even, the imagination must .re\io3t. The whale thing is too terrible to contemplate. And yet it serves to show how utterly frail and imperfect is human, creation -; when isci.enee and invention are put to the test. Shipbuilders and others have itold us that these modern-constructed palaces cf -the sea are practically unisinkable. But here is proof, tragic proof, to the contrary. The wreck of (the Titanic will create a feeling' of alarm in the minds of. shipbuilders land master mariners, and will cause «. searching investigation to be made into the methods cf modem shipbuilding