THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MAONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1910. THE KAIPARA FINDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14294, 14 February 1910, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MAONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1910. THE KAIPARA FINDING.

The finding of the Nautical Court set up to inquire into the stranding of the Kaipara in the Rangitoto ( Channel cannot have surprised . anyone, unless the Harbour authorities are astonished ; to - find ' . that ■: no harsher indictment f than -t that of " masterly inactivity and' supineness" is made against them. The Court entirely and unqualifiedly, acquitted Captain Cornwall of all default, negligence, or error' of judgment, and this will be approved with particular feeling by all who . have followed the , evidence ; tendered by !. witnesses, > and . extracted from the Harbour authorities, during the commendably fair and impartial hearing given to this peculiar case. 5: The Kai- . para, deeply'laden, and with - an admitted list, but unquestionably, sea- • worthy "and well within the regulations, left an Auckland wharf within an hour or . so of the lowest tide of the year. - The Harbourmaster saw her off; the Deputy-Harbourmaster ' todk her into the stream; r the ; chart showed ample water even for her unusual draught; the fairway of Rangitoto Channel showed, no obstruction in the fcourse that she pursued. -..So confident was - Captain Cornwall in his > vessel, in the chart, in ! the reliability ' of the Auckland Harbour authorities, that he did not even steer a tortuous , course through the deepest markings. ; He accepted the chart, assumed that the Harbour authorities had no reason . to doubt at, and every reason to' trust it, and steered his ship, with an ample margin of safety, as straight as possible for the open' sea. He our! harbour of Auckland' unwarned, uncatutioned, with absolute confidence that ! if anything were wrong or doubtful he would not have -been permitted to remain in ignorance ;, ' and {he ran the Kaipara into a; rock, -which?there is every ; reason , to believe, had previously been touched by, vessel after vessel during the ? past decade, which had "' been " reported' over 7.and ' over again to the ; Harbour Board, and which ought—we do riot' hesitate to say— * have been - officially - charted and published. , The unhappy knowledge that the character of a competent and careful British - captain .was > endangered ;• by - his ; mistaken truiit and faith, in/ ouri port authorities; gives rise to the profound relief which every honest Aucklander ihust feel at Captain Cornwall's clearance. His unqualified acquittal does not lighten the gloom .'or, the burden j of : the long series of inexcusable : anil unjustifiable official "negligences, - but

at? least' it • assures us that ; the innocent stranger ia -friot to be made the ; scapegoat i for the offenders within ■ our gates. -• .- - . - v ,i ;• , — < t ' ' It i will assist us to understand the fundamental weaknesses of systems which have allowed this ■ " Kaipara shoal' ,; to: remain for years uncharted ;in ' mid-channel, though touched again and again, if . we associate with .this astounding incidence- of our port" management the equally extra.ordinary fact that the buoys were shifted -in the .'Channel _so : that., they : .no longer corresponded . with the chart-markings, and, the still more extraordinary fact that boulders were upset at the Railway Wharf in the; spot where the largest vessels berth, and that the Harbour authorities claimed to know nothing of it. A more haphazard system, was never created. Somebody thinks, that the channel buoys should be shifted into shallower water, because most of our vessels are light draught, and will find" plenty of water anywhere between them. Forthwith the Minister for Marine is asked to authorise this, and approves in as automatic a' manner as • the Harbour Board had approved of the suggestion made to it. Whence we' have the amazing situation that ' the buoys have thus been made misleading for the very depths to mark* _ which they were placed. . Where such l things ►cca r be done, and where it is nobody's business to see what is dropped at the Railway Wharf berthing,, we can see that , anything; else is , possible. . - The Duquesne undoubtedly touched the " Kaipara Shoal" twenty years ago, for a " diver recently brought up a strip of her copper sheathing. The Waimate as undoubtedly touched in 1904, and it. may be equally taken for granted that the Sierra touched -in '1902.. ' Each of these cases was reported tothe Board. . In 1901, " the harbourmaster on at least two occasions urged the Board to have the ; harbour re-surveyed, and although 'the Board was fully aware .that vessels were reported to have struck' something in the fairway of the jßangitoto Channel, when, according to* the depths shown in the; chart, they ought not to have done so, no real and determined effort has ever* been made by the Board to search for hidden dangers or to, make or . procure an exhaustive survey of the, Channel ; and • harbour." Upon this failure of the Board to make a survey the excuse has been put forward. that. no I Admiralty vessel ; was, available, and that the Admiralty only accepted, official- surveys. . 'It is very - difficult, . in the face ; of the strange attitude adopted by the harbour authorities, to V know just what the . "Harbour - ? Board" really thought, 1 but it appears that the cost of- a local / survey would - have been j only '£450, and it-is -certain that the ; need of a survey, was not considered j pressing enough to induce anybody | in 'authority •to warn Captain .Corn? wall, ;-: leaving . with , the -. heaviest draught on the lowest tide. We canriot .• think • that the - urgency ' of -the matter was : impressed , by the r permanent officials upon each successive Board,. and we know that of 368 rocks and shoals " dangerous to navigation" ' discovered in 1908 "as rer ported by the hydrographers of the Admiralty," v only 29 were found by surveying ; ships, and 280 were reported; by; colonial" and'foreign Governments- We are lost, in an abyss j of .: incompetence - and indifference, j Does anybody imagine now that we shiould wait for the. Imperial Govern- j ment to resurvey Rangitoto Channel —in order that we may shift the I biioys4-or that anything can do any permanent good excepting & thorough . reorganisation of harbour management and harbour methods