The Lyttelton Times. TUESDAY. FEBRUARY 10. 1891.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 9334, 10 February 1891, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. TUESDAY. FEBRUARY 10. 1891.

In theory there is an uncertainty about the unfortunate little steamer Kakanui. She left the Macquarie islands on Jan. 3. This is Feb. 10. She has been away thirty-eight days. Now, she went from the Bluff to the Macquaries in exactly seven days. The principal islands were searched by Captain Fairchild on his way to the Macquaries without seeing any sign of the little 1 steamer. Still there are a few rocks remaining unsearched, principally the Campbell Islands, with the large harbour of Port Adventure. Is it possible that the Kakanui has got there ? Two days after she left the Macquaries a terrific gale sprang up, and undoubtedly caught her. A vessel of forty-seven tons has come through heavy weather in all ages of the world. The vessels of Columbus were not so large, for example. From the Auckland Islands five and twenty years ago a _ small craft, about two tons, built in the place by rude hands out of the wreckage of a schooner, made Stewart Island after a tremendously stormy passage, running before a huge gale of wind. But these have all been sailing craft. A steamer is not weatherly in the same manner. Dependent on her fires, she is very easily disabled. One big sea coming on board the Kakanui, putting out the fires, she would be entirely helpless. But tales of the sea are filled with extraordinary escapes. It may be possible that brave, skilful, resolute men did something to keep the wretched vessel afloat. They may have used the sails in such a way as to have readied some shelter. It is improbable. There was three hundred miles of ocean between them and the Campbells when the gale struck them. It is but a wild hope that they are anywhere but at the bottom of the sea. Still, the Campbell Islands have not been searched, and the Auckland [slands, from what we can gather from Captain Fairchild’s remarks, have only been searched at a time too soon, for the result of any desperate expedient of seamanship on board the Kakanui to be known. There may, therefore, be said in theory to he a slight uncertainty as to the fate of the vessel. As long as there is life there is hope, and that justifies the Government in spending as much money as may be required to clear up this mystery promptly and completely. Parsimony of the most deplorable character, if the vessel is lost, was the direct cause of the disaster. Let the end of this episode of the sea be redeemed by some litfile flash of generous expenditure.

The one person in New Zealand who comes out of this business with credit is Mr Hatch, of Invercargill.,

Public meetings howled and public bodies made prejudiced remonstrance. Mr Hatch was branded as a monster of infamy who had left a party of his servants upon a desert island with insufficient food, and he was deliberately neglecting them, careless to the terrible fate of death by starvation which awaited them. That was the reason why the relief expedition was sent down at all. It turns out that the remonstrances with which Mr Hatch met the criticisms of his enemies—for Mr Hatch is not a popular man —it turns out that these remonstrances were absolutely founded on fact. The Hinemoa returns with the story that provisions were fairly abundant on Macquarie Island. The brave men who went down deserve every credit for facing the fiercest portion of the whole of the Pacific Ocean in a frail craft of the description of the Kakanui. It has been suggested by one of our contemporaries that the vessel would not have been sent without the recommendation of experienced navigators. That is probably so, for it is difficult to imagine anyone in a Ministerial position taking such tremendous responsibility. To the merest tyro who has ever made a voyage the memory of the seas near the latitude of the Macquarie Islands will be a recollection to the last day of his life. It is most probable, we fancy, that constant reminders from the economical people who pervade the political field made the late Government, never remarkable for strength at any time, too weak to consider questions of this sort upon their merits. Their sense of proportion was destroyed by criticism. Why they did not send the Hinemoa is a question that has been asked but never answered. Why not H.M.S. Cura§oa, still lying in New Zealand harbours doing nothing, is a question which ought to be asked. But these are matters for future consideration. At present a trifle of uncertainty hangs over the fate of fifteen of our fellow-creatures. In clearing up that mystery without delay the Government have undoubtedly done their duty.

The working man of the Old Country appears to have taken to the notion of Imperial Federation. At all events, there was a meeting held the other day at the Tidal Basin at Yictoria Docks, in the well-known “ Club-room,” of working men, chiefly dockers. After some discussion, a resolution was passed, without a single dissentient, in favour of Imperial Federation. The principle was affirmed later on at a monster meeting, strange to say, held at Beaumont Hall. Remarking upon this the London correspondent of a contemporary observes that everyone favours the idea in England. There is a crudity about that expression of opinion which stamps it as a generalisation of small value. But the fact that working men in large numbers have carried such a resolution is important in the history of Federation. The idea, as far as we can gather, appears to be that the initiative should come from the Colonies. That course is strong evidence that a sense of the difficulty of the problem has not yet been grasped. We in the Colonies have been, in this respect, either more intelligent or more fortunate, for we have, most of us, arrived at the conclusion that Imperial Federation is not now requiring any initiative steps, for the simple reason that Imperial Federation is already established on a solid basis. The practical form in self-governing colonies is the representative constitution, of which the Sovereign’s representative is an integral portion. The strength of the Empire is thrown around the Colonies. Resting upon that strength are the ties of national kinship. We want at present nothing more. We have realised that the Constitution, which somewhat loosely gives us our federation, is capable of development directly according to all circumstances that may arise. It has been so from the very first. That it is so now we have a proof in the powerful Australasian squadron which, maintained partly by Australasian contributions, at this moment is on its way across the sea to Australasian waters. Another proof is probably the great movement initiated last year in Australia, and now in progress, for the federation of the Colonies. Imperial federation requires no initiative. It requires a development of the present system. Circumstances will give us that system. The only thing we want to secure time for that development is the permanence of mutual good feeling. The best sign that we have seen of that permanence of late years is the passing of these resolutions by the working men in the East End of London.