SAFETY TO LIFE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3208, 28 October 1867, Page 4

SAFETY TO LIFE.

To th« Editor of tht Daily Sovnu&N Caosi. Bib, — Although w© havg a surplus population, surely that is no reason why we should expose certain- members thereof to the risk of meeting with a riolent death. I allude to the manner in which persons are occasionally precipitated into the water in going on board, or landing from, the steamers laid on for the goldfield. >nly fancy a plank 12 inches wide, or thereabouts, at an angle of 45 degrees, and that continually on the move with the motion of the vessel, as the j only means by which passengers can reach the : sLore or vessel* as (the case may be-:" this is certainly " walking the plank," although it is being performed in the nineteenth century. Hitherto we have had no fatal terminations, which we can only attribute to good luck rather than to management ; but still there is a great probability that a coroner's jury will some day sit upon the body of some unfortunate individual who, having fallen from off this board, and not being able to swim, is of course " accidentally drowned." May be the jury will give a rider to their verdict, " that sufficient care was not taken to provide a safer stage ;" but this is merely conjecture. Mr. Editor, my reason for troubling you with these few lines is simply the hope that your giving publicity to them may be the means of inducing proprietors of vessels to procure proper stages, with rails, for the accommodation of their passengers, and, moreover, the salvation of many valuable lives. — I am, &c, Spbctatob.