THE ACCIDENT ON WELLINGTON WHARF.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10270, 13 February 1899, Page 3

THE ACCIDENT ON WELLINGTON WHARF.

1 TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir.. —The late fatal accident on Wellington wharf, reported in your issue of this morning, induces mc to call public attention, through, the medium of your paper, to a practice that obtains upon our Lyttelton wharves on the arrival of every passenger steamer.- (Note —passenger). No matter at whatever hour between 8 a.m*. a* p.asseng4SE,*teaiDe&Amay arrive, there is always a string of trucks at the base end of the wharf, attached to which is a horse, of course, under the control of a driver, who, in turn, is under the orders of some other driver, whose practice is to wait patiently until the vessel's lines are on the wharf, when he gives the signal to the horseman, who immediately sets his horse in motion, which draws some ten or fifteen trucks down the line nearest the ship's side, utterly disregarding the safety of those whose duty it is to moor the vessel, or those persons who may have relations or friends on board. Of course it may be said that persons who have friends on board have no right to.be at the vessel's side, but until some legal method be .devised of keeping people off the wharves, they have a perfect right to be there, as the wharves are open to the public. Another argument that may be raised is, that the trucks being placed alongside immediately upon the vessel's arrival expedites her discharge. This argument is entirely fallacious, as I am in a position to prove that, with the exception of one truck for the conveyance of passengers' luggage, wiiicn could be shunted down the middle road and traversed 1 after the rush was over, the delay of shunting the cargo trucks in: "would not retard the discharging operations one minute, because, when the labourers board a ship their first duty is to remove the hatches, prepare their yardarm gear, make fast their cargo net, and then prepare their first sling of cargo. When it is taken into consideration that the* labourers are not employed until the vessel is alongside the wharf (except in every rare cases), and that all, the routine mentioned above has to be gone through before a sling can be landed on the wharf, I think your readers will agree with m-3" that some steps should be taken to compel the railway authorities at Lyttelton-to carry out the first important duty assigned to them, viz., the safety and comfort of tne travelling public.—lours, etc., PRO BONO PUBLICO. Lyttelton, February 10th, 1899. ■