West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1866.

West Coast Times, Issue 217, 30 May 1866, Page 2

West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1866.

Although the Westland electors will have very little power of contributing to Mr Moorhouse's success in to-day's contest, the good wishes of the whole district will be with him ; and avo trust that of tho few here who enjoy the franchise as " enrolled electors" of the province, not one will fail to record a vote in his favor. "We have no doubt his majority throughout the province Avill be sufficiently large to render him independent of the small support this district has tho power of rendering him. But it will be a graceful thing for such qualified electors as there are amongst us, to give a sign that "Westland accepts him as the Superintendent of the province, even more heartily and with more unanimity than it accepted him as its representative in the General Assembly. This district is growing more* and more sick every day of the present most un-

satisfactory system of government by a Commissioner — at onco irresponsible and hand-bound ; and it remembers the promises made by Mr Moorhouso during his visit here, as the guarantee of an entirely new condition of affairs. No one who wishes well to Westland, and the development of its vast resources, will fail to join in the earnest hope that the result of to-day's election will be to place William Scl'ton Moorhouso at the head of the poll. His Only formidable antagonist is Mi Lance, aud Mr Lance has, until the very last moment, forgotten that Westland had an existence, and a claim upon tho attention of a candidate for the Superintendency of the province. Mr Lance has adopted some of Mr Moorhouse's suggestions for tho benefit of this district ; but he has been very tardy in doing so. His recollection of us is an after thought inspired by. the exigencies of a close contest. Mr Moorhouso has' been amongst us : has talked to us in a hearty, straightforward, manly strain ; has shewn that he is able to understand the wants of Westland, and has fertility of resource and force of character {o meet them. Of one thing tho public may bo assured, that if he^is Superintendent there will be a very speedy and a very radical change in the system of administration on this coast. Should Mr Moovhouse fail in this election, ho will still bo tho trusted servant of tho district, and wo feel sure he will not fail to recognise that fact. He came to Westland a stranger ; he soou made the people his friends. In his place in tho General Assembly, and in Ilia placo in tho Provincial Council (should he not be Superintendent), he will remember that this district' has trusted him; has put faith in his integrity* and in his promises. No attempt will bo made on any technical grounds to dispute his seat in tho House of ' Representatives. His opponent in tho late contest, we believe, recognises tho principlo that under none but the most special circumstances, ought the verdict of the electors be sought to bo reversed by mere pleas of informality. Mr. Moorhouse's return will not be petitioned against by Mr. Shaw, on the ground of tho objections to its validity suggested by the Canterbury "Press," nor on any other grounds whatever. He will, therefore, be the representative of the district in the parliament of the colony — and, so far as the voico of Westland can influence the result, tho Superintendent of tho Province of which Westland is an integral portion.

Some days back we published a list of vessels which had sailed either from or to this port, and had not since been heard of. Tho list was a melancholy one. It is only in the caso of a great disaster, such as theloss ofa " Lpnclou" or a ''City of Dunedin," that public attention is at all prominently called to the causes of shipwreck, and to the means of averting it. Yet every loss of a sihall vessel is a tragic occurrence in itself; and although its sad influence is diffused through a narrower circle than in tho case of a great shipwreck, the bereavement to each family falls upon it with equal weight. The official enquiry into the wreck of tho London has terminated in a decision adverse— not to the manner in which tho ship was loaded or manned, nor adverse to the general stylo of her build — but condemnatory of the insufficient precautions taken to prevent tho ingress of heavy seas into her engine-rooms. This appears to be tho most critical danger to which ocean steamers are oxposed. They are built to depend upon their steam power, and if their machinery is once disabled they aro left in a far, more helpless position than a well equipped sailing ship. The steaming capacity of a boat such as the London becomes destroyed from tho moment when the inrush of water puts out the fires. These facts are patent and intelligible ; but they only contribute, with a multitude of other facts, to one general conclusion, viz., that ships, both largo and small, are habitually sent to sea under circumstances that afford no proper guarantee of safety to tho lives embarked in them. In some instances everything is sacrificed to speed ; in others a too implicit dependence is | placed on scientific and mechanical appliances, which a, slight and unexpected accident may derange and render usclecs. In others again — and it is to this class that we desire to call special attention — the danger is incurred by the sending to sea of utterly untrustworthy crafts, manned by utterly untrustworthy men. It appears that the ketch Bluo 801 l sailed from this port to tho Grey upwards of a year ago, and is supposed to have capsized in a gale which raged on the coast about the time of her voyage. She had four men on board her, who were of course lost. ' Tho Sanga-

licr was a schooner of sixty tons, and sailed from Hokitika for Port Molyneux on the 21st October last. Silo also had four men on board, of whoso fate it is prdbable that no story will ever be told. The Sir Henry Havelock, a cutter of seventeen tons, left for Invcrcargill shortly after tho date we havo just named. She had three brothers on board, of whom no tidings will ever be brought back fi'oin tho sea. Six months ago the Dove left Nelson for this port. Sho was a schooner of twenty-five tons, and had about twenty-four persons on board, including passengers and crew. On board tho schooner Jessie, which left Invercargill for Hokitika on tho 20th February last, there" were four hands; and tho history of this vessel has never been ascertained, beyond the fact that she called at Stewart's Island, and resumed her voyage on the 26 th February.

It may bo noted that the whole of these missing vessels were of exceedingly small tonnage, aud those who know their story say that they word not only utterly unsuiled for tho stormy and perilous navigation of these coasts, but that thoy wore very inadequately manned. A large number of the shipping disasters that have occurred- in the colonial waters since the discovery of tho gold-fields, have resulted froin> a class of vessels being pressed into t^e trade which had seen too many years' of servico to be any louger trustworthy. On this coast, vessels have been employed wholly unfitted for the traffic, and they havo often been manned by persons who were not in any sense mariners capable of encountering the perils of ocean navigation. River boatmen, and landsmen without even the splosh of salt water upon them, have essayed to 1 become sea captains, and in doing so havo endangered, not only their own lives, but those of unwary passengers. We say nothing of the loss of cargo. That is a consideration altogether subsidiary. But the loss of life is something fearful to contemplate. It is not to b,e disputed that the unfortunate victims have in many instances been themselves to blame. They havo, for the sake of saving a pound ior two, taken their passages in vessels affording no adequate guarantee of safety. But so long as unsuitable vessels are allowed to leave port offering to carry passengers on cheap terms, so long tho temptation of saving by shipping on board of them, will be yielded to at all risk. Tho moral of all which is that more stringent marine regulations should bo enforced, and no vessel allowed to proceod to sea except after official 'inspection aud certificate ; no master be allowed to take command of a craft unless cer* tified to as to competency, and no seaman allowed to be shipped, except as a supernumerary hand in excess of tb.ose demanded by tho tonnage of the vessol, without proof or testimony of efficiency. If precautions of this .kind had been adopted we should, in all probability, havo been spared the pain of recording the present melancholy wreck register.