LIGHTHOUSES AND SINGLEING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5632, 4 December 1879, Page 5

LIGHTHOUSES AND SINGLEING.

While public interest is attracted to the subject of signalling from tho lighthouses, we think steps sho-.ild ho taken to have tho whole matter satisfactorily arrange 1. That can be ouly done in one way, nimt-ly, by +he extension of tho electric wire. 11ns indaeil was prop med by Captiin Burgess, ho Ion" ago as 1572, anil it is now much tasier to carry out the plan ho then proposed, in tbat year a proposed system of signalling was sent from the Mariue Bar Ito Captain Daldy, to be used between Tiritiri and the Flagstaff, but it was found to be utterly impracticable to work it, as the distance was too great without a repeating station, which was out of tile question. Captain Burgess then report I'd im the subject, and urged that the lighthouse at Tiritiri should lie connected by electric cable with the U'hangapara a poiiiusula. That (-light to l>e° don-; now, and it would involve 110 cost to the department beyond the cable and a short land wire. The wire could be carried t-. the Waiwesa, where tl.ero is a station, aul the meSPng'S sent to Auckland, where tho oftioe is juat opp< sue the offices of t e Harbour Hoard. TiiU would suffice to c .nv->y any menage from the people at the lighthouse, as of late was to requisite, a: d nl-o information about vessels outside, mli'-to they can be seen from Tiritiri sometimes for days before they can be observed from the llags'aCf. TSuthiug would be but f .hat the light:.ous-i keeper at T:r t i-i sb-nll bis t:mi.'hfc use the wiro to tlw iim-t- .1 extent required, a3 has been done at M.anukau Heads and Kaipara. The length of sea cablc required would be oiilv a mile and a-half. Ihe new lighthouse at C.ipo Marin Van Diomen should also be unmeet, d by wire with the ordinary telegraphic system at Mangonui. By this m. ans immediate news could be conveyed to Auckland of any vessel in distress oil the coast. A short time ago, it will be remembered, a, boat landed at the North Cape from a vessel in distress. Two men were drowned in landing. and the others had to make their way overland to .Mangonui, whence word was sent by telegraph, anil a vessel sent out We have just" heard that the signal station at Tort l.yttelton has been connected with the harbour by telephone. Generally, indeed. iu the South improvements are adopted speedily. This is not because the department "at Wellington favours the South rather than the North, but because those in charge of the harbours in the North are supine. A gentleman who visited Wellington lately, and who conversed with the officers of tiie Marine Department, informs lis that we do not press our claims from this quarter, and that from mere procrastination we are likely to lose a lighthouse of the lirit order which was intended to be plac- d on the coast between Auckland and the Bay of Islands. In reference to the qu stion of whether the signals can or cannot be seen under certain conditions from the F.'agstaflr, it is not worth while continuing any controversy in face of the distinct declaration of the Harbourmaster that they cannot be seen. A correspondent, however, writes that the same signal of distress was hoisted a month a so, when the mother of the deceased child was ill, and was then distinctly seen and recognised from Seafiehl View.