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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9015, 30 March 1888, Page 4

Ix another column we give a somewhat detailed report of an invention of Mr. James Holmes' for saving ships after collision at sea. It is not to the honour of colonial life, but it is a fact all the same, that any colonial invention or discovery is commonly viewed askance by colonists themselves. With all our boasted independence of thought, this feature exhibits a servility in the colonial character that we believe more than anything else bars colonial progress. The Brennan Torpedo, a colonial invention, now world-wide in its fame, is only one of a hundred instances that might be adduced to show that the practical character of life in the colonies, our being brought in contact with first principles, and our being compelled to grapple with nature in its simplest forms, have a tendency to sharpen the perceptions in colonial minds, and to fit us for the practical application of common sense to our surrounding wants in a manner that does not hold among older and more conventional communities. It is this peculiarity of life that has made the people of the United States so apt to apply their ingenuity to common things ; but in that country they have overcome the servility of spirit which seems to prompt men in new scenes so commonly to wait on the "thinkings and the doings of the bigger communities whence thev sprung ; and they have developed that receptivity of disposition which impels them to expect, and to hail with welcome, any invention or ingenious contrivance among themselves. In these colonies, on the contrary, we will not bring ourselves to believe that there are minds among us capable of conceiving things that may ultimately command the world's attention, and so our first impulse is to treat with indifference, if not contempt, the pleadings for attention from any of ourselves who may have something to show that may be yet of world-wide application. And so when we hear that a resident of Auckland has an invention capable of saving ships and lives from the fate that is every year befalling thousands of our fellowcreatures, we are inclined to turn away in the spirit of the old doubters, who asked, " Can any good come out of Nazareth 1" We believe that Mr. James Holmes has introduced to notice an invention that will yet command attention, and that it may be capable of saving many ships and many thousands of human lives which otherwise are doomed to be swallowed up in the waves. We need not refer to the particulars of this contrivance, which we have detailed in another column. Its importance, if it proves successful, requires nothing to show. When we think of the helpless condition of those 011 board a vessel that has collided with a rock or another vessel in mid ocean, with the waters rushing in below, and the passengers frantically rushing to and fro on deck ; and it may be in a cold wintry night, half clad and perishing with cold, betaking themselves to the boats or to rafts, or girding on life-belts to commit themselves to the waters, where an hour or two of the cold is nearly sure to end their struggles in a miserable and lingering death ; and when we think of the ship steadily sinking down, down beneath their feet, with the torrents of water rushing in through the breach in the hold, who would not long for something that would stop that rush of waters, and enable the poor shivering sufferers to remain in the ship, and be carried by her in comfort to the port, instead of betaking themselves to the precarious and miserable chances of safety by committing themselves to the wintry, waters 1 The man who would contrive such a remedy in shipwreck should be regarded as one of the greatest benefactors of the age ; and as this contrivance to which we refer essays to be such, and is considered by many experts to be capable of rendering this incomparable service to humanity, we hold that it should receive the most careful consideration of shipowners and shipmasters, and of everyone to whom the travelling public look for safety when " going down to the sea in ships." If it can do what it purports to do, and which it really seems capable of doing, then it is criminal negligence if it is not placed

on board of every vessel in whip}, passengers are borne by sea. We con tent ourselves for the present by mere! J drawing attention to the seemine J great importance of this simple automatic contrivance for saving ships and human life, sincerely hoping that it will receive the attention which it seems m evidently to deserve.