BOAT ACCIDENT AT THE MOKIHINUI.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1038, 17 January 1873, Page 3

BOAT ACCIDENT AT THE MOKIHINUI.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.) Sir, —Seeing your paper regularly, I cannot pass' over the issue of the 10th instant, without making a few remarks on the great accident that occurred on board a coal barge on the bar of Mokihinui, with the owner on board, a well-known Mokihinui resident—Mr Jones. From the account as given by your informant—Mr Jones no doubt—it really seems a " somewhat" miraculous escape of life and property, but in general there is nothing lost in telling the tale of such occurrences. He says—"ln his hour of distress, in broad daylight, there was not even the boatman to go to his aid !" If this had not been mentioned as the wind-up of this great catastrophe, perhaps the public would not have known of a boatman being there at all. I wonder does Jones think a boatman has nothing to do but sit on the Mokihinui river bank and bo on the look out for his flat-bottomed barge coming up from the Buller? If he dees, lam afraid he is mistaken. He must first take the " motes" out of his own eyes before he is able to take them out of others, Noscitur ex Sociis. No doubt, Mr Editor, your have read the tale of " Whang The Miller." It so happened that the boatman was down to the Buller on that day, and his matt had not observed the accident or I have no doubt he might have lent him a willing hand. I am, &c, Kappa.