D.—No. Ib.

RETURN OF AMOUNTS APPROPRIATED FOR CONTINGENCIES OF THE MANUKAU HARBOUR, BY THE APPROPRIATION ACTS, FOR THE YEARS 1858 TO 1862, BOTH INCLUSIVE, WITH THE AMOUNTS EXPENDED EACH YEAR.

E. B. Lusk, Provincial Accountant.

In the early part of the year 1861, the Pilot reported that it was necessary there should be a new code of signals for the Manukau Harbour, flags which were then employed 'having been found, owing to the prevailing winds, and the distance at which signals were obliged to be made to ships approaching the Harbour, to be perfectly useless. A new code, the one at present in use, was devised by the Pilot himself, approved of by the officer in command of Her Majesty's Ship on this station, and established. Of this code flags form no part, the signals being made by large squares and balls, and by telegraph arms. In the year 1861, a number of buoys were procured for marking the inner channel of the harbour. It is within my personal knowledge, as a member of the Government of the Province, that these buoys lay at Onehunga for several months after the time that Mr. Wing, the Pilot, had been instructed to take measures for having them laid down. I myself remonstrated with him frequently on his neglect in this matter. Finally, in the month of April, 1862, it was found necessary to declare to Captain Wing that until this work of laying down the buoys was completed by him, he would neither be permitted to incur the expenditure which he then declared necessary at the Pilot Station, nor receive his own salary. That communication was made to him by myself personally, and was also made to him by the Clerk of Records, as a memorandum on the Record No. 848-62 will show. The Superintendent had become greatly dissatisfied at the general negligence of the Harbour Master and Pilot, and with what appeared to be the extravagance of the expenditure of the Pilot Station, the cost of that single establishment, in the matte)- of " Contingencies," being greater than the charge for the whole of the other Pilot Establishments in the Province, under the same head. I have made these statements for the purpose of showing that in so far as expenditure of money could secure the efficiency of the Manukau Harbour Department, the Government were ready to and did actually incur the responsibility of making a much larger expenditure than the votes of the Council authorised. With respect to "the particular charges made by the Harbour Master against the Government in reference to the wreck of H.M.S. " Orpheus," that is to say, having refused to supply Marryatt's Code of Signals, and having refused to make provision for the launching of the life-boat, I have only to say, as a member of the Provincial Executive of that time, that having had before us the facts that flags as the means of communicating with ships at the Manukau had been disused altogether, and knowing also that the Marryatt Code of Signals, which had been formerly supplied, had rotted in the pigeonholes in the signal-house, none having during a period of three years been used, it did not appear that there was any urgent necessity to incur the expenditure for a new code : neither did the Harbour Master himself state that such a code was absolutely required at the Manukau, as in his letter of January 22nd, 1862, he simply reported the fact that the code (Marryatt's) which he then had was rotten and not fit for use, and he suggested (I use his own words) " that if the same is to be replaced, that the new Commercial Code should be adopted." With respect to the lifeboat, I was under the impression that she was housed in the manner in which the Harbour Master was instructed to have her housed, and that means of launching her had been provided. When the boat arrived here, it is within my knowledge that she was completely found in every respect, and I heard with surprise that, at the time of the wreck of the " Orpheus," the lifeboat was found to be laid bottom upwards in a cave near the Pilot Station, and that she was provided neither with oars nor sails, those articles having been used for other purposes from time to time at the Pilot Station. I desire to say that, with respect to the occurrence on the occasion of the wreck, it appears to me, after carefully considering the evidence given by the Signal-man at the inquest on the body of John Pascoe, that, at the time the "Wonga, Wonga" steamer was passing the Pilot Station, he, the Signal-man, had not comprehended the position of danger into which the " Orpheus " had got; he had already ceased to make signals to that ship, and had hauled down all the squares. When the "Wonga Won _" approached, he made a signal to her to proceed to sea by the South Channel. With respect" to the Signalman himself; I was surprised to find that the person, Hugh Evans, who had been

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FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO

AMOUNT VOTED. AMOUNT EXPENDED. For the vear 1858 Do." 1859 ! Do. 1800 Do. 1801 i Do. 1862 • £ S. d. 480 0 0 176 0 0 100 0 0 100 0 0 £ s. 1,183 10 134 11 200 4 540 19 62 19 d. 6 8 6 7 8 I I £850 0 0 £2,128 5 11