WELLINGTON NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9026, 12 April 1888, Page 5

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] Wellington, Wednesday. NAUTICAL ENQUIRIES'. The spectacle of two fine ships ashore near Wellington, and the bones of others wrecked in times past appearing about the sea in the neighbourhood, has greatly affected the Wellington people. Some of them have discovered that " nautical inquiries" are like "fire inquests," very unsatisfactory. The case of the Pleione was inquired into before three Justices. There was plenty of evidence as to what the officers of the vessel did under trying circumstances, but none was adduced to show how the vessel got ashore. Nothing was said as to the navigation of Cook Strait. To the Wellington mind all is plain sailing in Cook Strait, but the Post makes the discovery this evening that there may be very various difficulties in that locality. The writer says:"The fact of a very large number of wrecks having taken place in one particular spot, shows in a conclusive manner that these dangers are not fully realised by shipmasters, and that there are circumstances existing which tend to lead ships to their destruction for which allowance is not always made. The opportunity is now afforded of finding out what these dangers and circumstances are, and what is possible to be done to prevent their leading to further additions to the long list of fine vessels which have buried their timbers in the sands between the Manawatu river and Paikakariki." TIDAL PHENOMENA. Sir James Hector, it is said, is engaged upon devising a simple form of tide gauge by means of which accurate observations of tidal variations may be made and recorded in connection with meteorological changes. It appears that the fact has only within the last day or two been known to the public that the neap tides have been three feet lcfwer than usual. The tide of the harbour during the recent storm rose eight feet above the ordinary high tide. The proposed tide-gauge will be a very cheap apparatus. It will no doubt be applied in every lighthouse in the colony, and at selected places along the coast. Some portion of the abnormal rise of the tide in Wellington is attributed to the water being massed by the hurricane blowing from the south, and dead in to the harbour, but the same tidal phenomena were observed in Lyttelton, where the harbour entrance faces the north. Sir James Hector thinks that volcanic disturbances had a great deal to do with the sudden rise of the water. His

object is to procure systematic observations of these tide changes all round the coast. Though there are tide gauges in some of the principal seaport -towns, they are not sufficient to record tidal disturbances along the coast lino, and consequently the observations of the aggregate variations at any given date are not recorded. THE PREMIER AND HIS POLICY. Under the heading " Rest for the Weary," the Press supports the claim of Sir Harry Atkinson to be delivered from the task of making speeches in the South, but the writers tenderness for the Premier does not release him altogether from the obligation of giving some public notice of his intentions. Here is the passage, bub it is proverbial that there may be too much of a good thing, and even silence may be indulged in to excess : —" Sir Harry Atkinson, wo know, hates the platform. Ho is too much a man of action to have any love of public speaking. For the present, too, he is fully entitled to a thorough rest, for | he has worked like a slave, and tough as he iisit is telling on him. A time is at hand, nevertheless, when his public duty will require him to acquaint the people with the position of their affairs, and to take them into his confidence as to the intentions of ,»the Ministry next session. When that time comes, we hope he will not shirk his duty," .