SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

Evening Star, Issue 11824, 2 March 1903, Page 1

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

WELLDTOTOH, Marc], 2. When asked by a Press representative on Saturday for details in connection with the touching of the Penguin near Jackson Head on Thursday night. Captain M'Arthur said that the vessel came along the Sounds with the stars and hill peats showing clear above a thin haze until off Jackson Head. It is necessary to keep close in shore there in order to' pick up the white beacon, and while he was doing so the densest fog he has ever seen swept down suddenly and completely covered everything. It was quite impossible to see at aIL The engines were stopped, and' it was while they were stopped that she drifted gentlv on to the kelp. Captain M‘Arthur wculdn t say that it would have helped thn had there been a light on the headland, but it might have done so. Had the Government placed a light there, as was promised to mm about two years ago,-it would have saved him Mid other commanders many and many an anxious hour. Captain M’Arthur says there was no excitement among the passengers when the vessel touched, and it was astonishing how calmly eveiybody acted. They were just as quiet as if they were at the wharf. The boats were swung out and provisioned immediately, everybody was at his station promptly, and a boat was sent away to report. Afterwards the passengers went to bed, and later the vessel floated off. On arrival at Nelson Captain M‘Arthur was presented with a testimonial which every passenger on board signed. The Collector of Customs at Wellington will bhnH* inspect the ship’s bottom, and if she is damaged to any great extent he will apply at once for a magisterial inquiry. If only slight damage has resulted from the accident he will hold a preliminary inquiry at once.

The staff of the Education Department mustered in force on Saturday for the purpose of a presentation by the Minister of Education and members of the staff to Mr B. Kirk, who has resigned his position m the department as Assistant-inspector of Eatiye Schools to take up an appointment to the Chair of Biology in connection with Victoria University College. The Minister made the presentation, which consisted of a gold watch and chain, and in doing so he expressed in warm terms his sense of the admnable services that Mr Kirk had rendemEthe department, and his conviction tnat bis great power of wort wonld certainly secure him the greatest possible suocess m his new position. In his reply, Mr Kirk said that it would be his- endeavor to mate the Cham of Biology to which he was to devote his future attention one of the best in the Australasian colonies. In the interests of the colony, and' for the purpose of attracting visitors from all quartera of the globe', it has been the habit of the Tourist Department to send out pamphlets and other information likely to be useful to intending travellers. The last mail brought acknowledgments from the Board of Trade of the city of • Toronto (Canada), ■ Brotherhood of- Hallway Trackmen (St. Louis), and' the Svenka Tnristforeningen (Stockholm), each of which “Mhea has circulated tiie -information.