MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1879.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5338, 24 March 1879, Page 2

MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1879.

From the Otago papers to hand wo learn that the case, against 'Captain Evans, the master of the baVque Easterhill, has ended in what may* be deemed tantamount to a Scotch verdict of " Not proven," It will "be 'remembered that Captain Evans was ' charged with having neglected to do anything towards saving ths life of an apprentrice boy, named William Taylor, who fell overboard from the Easterhill in January last, during the passage of the vessel to this colony. It appears from the Magistrate's •' decision' that the charge was clearly enough proved, so far as neglect to make any attempt at saving the boy was concerned, but it was considered that the boy was dead before he reached the sea, and as the law does not .require that the master of a vessel shall take any measures to recover a dead body, Captain Evans could not be adjudged guilty of the offence with which he was charged. In the course of his judgment, the Magistrate before whom the. case was heard said : " The boy fell, with no ap» parent obstruction, from the nrain-royal-yard to the boat-skid with the side of his ribs fairly across the end of it ; then he or his body rebounded into the sea, where he or it floated on the side without showing any sigh's of life to those on deck, or to the witness Johnston, who jumped .overboard. Speaking as a jury, lam of, opinion, no expert witnesses having been called, that the fall described must have literally crushed in the boy's ribs, and caused immediate death, and I am fortified in this opinion by the circumstance that it appears also to have been the opinion of all the witnesses who saw the accident, for they all talk of the ' boy' falling, but im- ' mediately upon and after it reaching the water they all talk of it as the 'body.'" Probably the Magistrate was right in arriving at that , decision, though to our thinking there seems to be a good deal of special pleading about the reasons he gives for it. It was certainly in evidence that the poor boy struck the boat-skid before he fell into the sea, but to assume that the boy was therefore dead seems scarcely a warranted conclusion; and, though the witnesses might have spoken of the boy as the " body," that did not show that they considered that life was extinct. At all events one of the seamen did not act as if he thought so, for he jumped into the sea to save the boy, or to recover the body. We will not go so far as to say that there has been a failure of justice in this case, but we do think ifc is a pity that Captain Evans has escaped punishment for his inhuman conduct. It was not as if the weather was bad, and any danger would be incurred in launching a boat or bringing the vessel to. On the cantrary, it was proved that the sea was calm, that there was very little wind blowing, and that the absence of any effort to save the boy arose from nothing but sheer neglect. Even when Johnston courageously jumped into the sea, there was the same culpable negligence manifested by the captain, and the gallant seaman was not only unable to effect the object for which he risked his life, but was barely able to save himself. It is some consolation that though Captain Evans has escaped the punishment that would have been meted out to him had the charged been deemed to have been proved, he did not leave the Court without having his conduct stigmatised by the Magistrate as unmanly, and reprobated as it merited. It is also . more than probable that Captain Evans has not heard the last of the matter yet. Though the prosecution instituted against him, under the 117 th section of the Shipping and Seamen's Act, has failed, there may be a way of reaching him under another section of the Act, which pi'ovides for the cancellation or suspension of a master's certificate, who, after due inquiry, shall be deemed, from incompetency or misconduct, unfit to dischai'ge his duties. We should think the Government will feel called upon to have an inquiry under that section of the Act instituted.