Clippings.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 245, 29 July 1876, Page 6

Clippings.

THE TRANSPACIFIC ROUTE. " Mil" writes to the S. M. Herald as follows, dating his communication, Zealandia, April 26: Your readers have had enough of the description of the Transpacific route, and if I add a line to your columns it is only to jn-otest against the contract arrangements for the present service. Everyone who has been to Kandavau—ay, even if it were Sir Julius Vogel himself —must ngree with me that it is not a fit place of call for mail steamers. I hold it to be so replete with danger that I am persuaded if New South Wales be determined to perpetuate the Western steam route she must relinquish the forked service at Kandavau. Were there no other drawback, the place is difficult of access ; but, entirely apart from this, it appears to me absolutely absurd that a mail steamer should, partly at the cost of New South Wales, xindertake the coastal service of New Zealand. It has ever been the misfortune of New South Wales that she has been afraid to stand alone—her bashfulness has prevented her blowingherown trumpet, and she has sought coalition instead of independence. It is theself-reli-ance of Victoria that has made her what she is. Even her greatest legislative fiscal mistake, that of protection, arises from an exaggeration of the same tone of self-reliance. When Victoria undertook the Suez route, she did not wait to see what the other colonies would give toward its support ; and so New South Wales, if she desire that the San Francisco route should prove a postal convenience, remunerative to herself and to the contractors (without which it could not be lasting), should determine upon the swiftest, safest, and best line, irrespeetive of all other considerations. I do not hold that this knowledge can be gained at a glance at a chart and ruling a straight line across the Pacific. Let any of your Australian statesmen take a passage in the boats that have been built for the service, and which are unsurpassed in the world —let him ask himself if the bar harbors and rock-bound coast of New Zealand are fit places to take a mail steamer to—let him, after having called at Kandavau, resolve whether it be a place of call he would like to approach in a dark or stormy night ; and unless he can determine these points in the affirmative, let him use all the means in his power to compel the adoption of a safer and better route—a route which, in being more rapid, because more direct, would induce a larger postal contribution from the other Australian colonies, which should be regarded collectively and not individually. We shall be told that New Zealand pays one-half of the subsidy, and relieves us of that much of liability, thus assuring that amount of contribution. But examine the question "'by the test of pounds, shillings, and pence, and even then this argument does not hold good. Our present liability is £45,000 per annum, and our contributions received for letters conveyed for other colonies other than New Zealand scarcely amounts to £SOOO per annum—thus leaving to u« a payment of £40,000 perannum. If, acting independently of New Zealand, we were to adopt the most direct and the cheapest route, freed from the forked service, it is probable that the subsidy required would not exceed £70,000 per annum; but if in such case we had, as we might have, a postal service of forty-four or forty-five days at the outside, our costs oixt of pocket, if we are to rely upon the results of the contribution of the other colonies, to Victoria for postages by the P. and O. route would not then exceed £25,000 ; but it is useless to ask our neighbors to post letters via San Francisco for sentiment if we give them speed they will do it, but upon that condition only. As far as New Zealand is concerned, I believe she would be better off without the forked service. The opinion may not be that of Sir Julius Vogel ; but I hold that it would be more patriotic and more statesmanlike to grant a subsidy to a local company for a coastal contract, rather than hand it over to a foreign company ; moreover, I am persuaded that it would be cheaper, and that should be some consideration. I do not hold it to be my business, as a landsman, to point out a safer harbor on the direct route, where, if deemed advisable, a steamer might pick tip or land mails or passengers from the other colonies. It is known that those exist and can be utilised, if we do not determine iipon making Kandavau a place of call for the bifurcation of that absurd idea—the forked service. BURNING OF THE ST. RAPHAEL. The Sydney Morning Herald of the 20th inst. publishes the following extract from a letter from a lady passenger by the ship Yorkshire, from Melbourne, bound to London, respecting the saving of the crew of the ship St. Raphael, burnt at sea:—"And now I am going to tell you the sad story of the shipwrecked crew that we were fortunate enough to pick up and save on the Ist January, when we rounded the Horn. Their ship, the San Raphael, was burnt at sea, and when we found them it was twenty-seven days since they had left her. Early in the morning the captain of the Yorkshire was signalling the John Duthie, when he noticed something on the horizon. On taking the glass he saw at once

that it was a boat ; so we began to heave-to. The John Duthie began to do the same, but when they saw we were doing it they sailed on. Whether they saw the boat of we do not know, but at all events they might have waited to see what was the matter or if they could lend any assistance. I then heard there was a boat coming to the ship, and, standing at the cuddy door, saw the men being helped over the main deck. They looked fearful, such poor wretched creatures, their arms all covered with frost-boils, their teeth chattering, and shaking all over as if they had the ague. There were six sailors and the first mate, Mr. Kilgour. Just as they came on board we heard a second boat was coming to us, with five men in her. They were got on board safely. The men were so weak that they fell back into the boat as they were trying to get on the ship. Their feet were all frost-bitten. One poor fellow's sufferings were dreadful. The doctor had to amputate both his great toes. He was ill for a long time, but you now see him shuffling along the deck. They suffered very much when circulation was returning. It was one of the saddest sights I ever saw. The poor fellows wept like children directly they came on board, and ' God bless you all' was their first exclamation. They all lived, and are now in a fair way to recovery, but the doctor says they all will be rheumatic. They say their feet feel quite dead, and it is now two months since they were picked up. It was 27 days since they had abandoned their ship. She was o larger one than ours, bound for Valparaiso with a cargo of coal. They had most tempestuous weather, and, of course, they had to round the Horn, where the winds are nearly always contrary. So they had been out a good deal over 100 days. The vessel took fire when they were near the Horn ; spontaneous combustion. The hatches blew up. They discovered the fire three clays before they left the ship, and made all necessary arrangements. The captain and his wife were in the longboat with his officers, and they had all the provisions, charts, and compasses put in her, intending all to keep together. But the captain, who used to drink, became so disagreeable that the first and second mates, who each had charge of the other boats, agreed to part from him. He then gave them as much provisions as he deemed sufficient, but keeping the lion's share for himself. They had only enough to allow each man 2ozs. of preserved meat a day. They landed on some of those rocks off the Horn, and agreed that when on land they would touch none of the provisions, but keep themselves alive on what they could get ashore. The only thing they could get was mussels, but they had plenty of fresh water and plenty of boxes of matches ; but with the fearful cold their feet were in such a state that they could hardly crawl on the rocks, so those who were not so bad gathered for the rest. But you may fancy the amount of mussels it would take to make sufficient food for a meal. They used to cruise about, and had hoisted a red shirt for a sail. They saw several ships, but were not seen. They had been back to the island twice, and when we took them up had been cruising about two days. Mr. Kilgour told us it was as much as he coidd do to get the men into the boats again. They did not seem to care for life. They had almost given up hope when we saw them. Of course, we do not know whether the longboat has been picked up. They had determined not to put back upon the island again, and that if they saw one boat in danger to turn their backs, as neither of the boats were big enough to take them all. They showed Spartan courage about refraining from the food when they were almost starving. They had sufficient left when we took them on board to have lasted them three days longer. Just think what it must have been to be twenty-seven days out off Cape Horn in those fearful waves (it blew a hurricane for seven days, when they were obliged to remain on the land) ; the careful rowing it required — for if they had once let a wave get over the boat they would have gone over in a second. When they came alongside, both the boats were half full of water ; they had both been hurt in lowering over the sides of the San Raphael. The day after they were rescued there was a dreadful storm and sea, in which neither of the boats could have lived, so they had a mobt marvellous escape from a watery grave." HIS LITTLE GROCERY. He was a clean looking colored man of advanced age, and when he entered a wholesale house on Vesey-street, one of the clerks politely informed him that the situation of porter was already filled. "Does I look like a man who'd be regarded as a porter?" asked the stranger. " Ah ! excuse me. "You is diseased, sah. Whar is do foreman ? Over dar, eh ? No, sir, I don't want to be porter. I'ze one ob de sober men ob Newark, and I'ze here on 'portant business." He wanted goods. There were lots of goods there, and it was very easy to suit him as to price, but he had no money and no recommendations. "De pay is sure in sixty days," he urged. " But you can give no security." "What you want ob security ? Won't de goods be dar ?" " You may have sold them." " Den won't the money be dar, counted out on de counter ! And if the money ain't dar, won't I be dar ? And if I ain't dar, and if de ole woman's gone, and de children can't be found, can't I be frowd into bankruptcy, and be all smashed up ?" He didn't get the goods. KNEW WHAT HE WAS HUGGING. A couple from the country came to the city yesterday, procured a license, and were married in due form. They left in the afternoon train for home. They attracted the attention of every person by their lavish display of affection. The young man kept his arm tight

around the bride's waist, as if he was afraid she would vanish before he knew it; and she didn't seem to care if he hugged her right along for half a day. She was so terribly homely that everybody wondered how he could love her, and by-and-by he seemed to to think that an explanation would be in order. He borrowed a chew of tobacco of a man near the door, and remarked, " I'm going to hug that girl all the way home, though I know she isn't purty." " I wouldn't," briefly responded the man. "And that's where you'd fool yourself," continued the young man. " When I'm hugging a hundred acres of clean, nice land, with forty head of stock on it, I can make the homeliest girl in the world look like an angel to me." — Augusta, Oa., Chronicle and Sentinel. THE CHAMPION LIAR. ("M. Quad," in the Detroit Free Press.) One evening last week, when the winter blasts moaned sadly around the street corners, and the captains of the ferry-boats wore anxious looks, seven or eight vessel owners and "laid up " lake captains sat around a baseburner in a saloon near the river. After the usual amount of growling about the weather, one of them told a story. There might have been an ounce of truth about it, but the croAvd felt certain that the one ounce was offset by twenty-four pounds of the " awfullest kind " of lying. Therefore a second man told a story to beat it, and then a third man beat the second. When the fourth man started out he said : " Gentlemen, I have also seen tough times. When I >vas sailing the schooner Fortune forty years ago, two of us were swept overboard in a storm on Lake Erie one black night, a hatch cover went with us, and it so happened that we both clutched it. It was not large enotigh to support two. I was a captain—he a sailor. I had a family—he had none. I shouted to him to quit his hold, and when he would not, I reached over, clutched his throat, and held on till his fingers loosened, and he went to the bottom of the lake. It was twenty miles off Point Betsy, and with a shrill, wild shriek, which yet lingers in my ears, the poor wretch went to his death ! May the Lord forgive me !" With his chair tilted against the wall, a lanky, sunflowerish chap had been nodding his head right and left, as if sleeping. As the captain's narrative was concluded, the stranger rose up and solemnly said: " I am that man !" The crowd looded at him in astonishment, and he continued: " I landed on Point Betsy next morning in time for breakfast, and I swore a solemn oath that I'd liek you for choking me if I had to live a hundred years to do it !" "You can't be the man," replied the captain, looking suspiciously at the fellow's big fists; "it was forty years ago." " I know it was, and for forty years I have been aching to lick you out of your boots !" The captain had lied, but he didn't want to own it, and he said : "The sailor s name was Dick Rice." " Kerect !" bowed the stranger, " that's my name !" " But he was taller than you." " Being in the water so long that night I shrunk just a foot," was the cool rejoinder. " Well, I know you can't be the man," said the captain. " I am the man, and now I'm going to maul you to pulp ! No man can choke me and then brag about it !" He sailed in and upset the captain, but was then set upon by the whole crowd. He got into the eye of the wind, and hung there for a time, but presently he paid off a little, got the wind on his quarter, and went in to lick ten times his weight in old' liars. He was a very ambitious man, and those who could get out of doors got out, and those who could'nt offered him a gallon of whisky to come to anchor. He furled his sails on this understanding, and as he set his glass down for the third drink he wiped his bleeding ear, and remarked—- " When a man tries to sacrifice me in order to save himself, he don't know who he's fooling with ! " He was the biggest liar of them all, but he made the most out of it. CORONERS' INQUESTS. (From the New Zealand Times.) The Coroners Act Amendment Bill has met with a good deal of opposition. That opposition has come from two classes of people, the class that still believes in " crowner's quest law," and the class that is prepared to set itself against anything or everything proposed by the Ministry. For ourselves, we must confess that whilst we support the Bill as a step in the right direction, we should feel much more pleasure in supporting it if it went the proper length, and in a few clauses simply abolished coroners and coroners' inquests altogether. While it does not do this, however, it endeavors to prevent in future the evils that arise from inquiries conducted before gentlemen quite ignorant of law, and by their medical knowledge, or want of knowledge, frequently prejudiced. During the debate in committee on the Bill some curious stories were told of the mistakes which have occurred in connection with the holding of coroners' inquests in this colony, but the committee was assured that these mistakes were mere trivial matters, and that in England, where coroners' inquests were hold in high respect as extremely useful judicial inquiries, and where numbers of coroners were medical men, the Legislature was in no hurry to abandon the system, and

public opinion was not opposed to it. Now, as a matter of fact, when medical men are appointed coroners in England, the position is so pecuniarily advantageous that they as a rule give up practice, and make the study of coroners' law quite as much a matter of course with them as is a technical knowledge of medicine. But as a further matter of fact, even though this is the case, public opinion at Home has decidedly set in a strong current against the whole system of coroners' inquests. We have before us files of leading English papers received by the last mail, and in all of them, we find articles pointing out the utter absurdity of coroners' inquests. Perhaps the most effective articles in this direction are to be found in the Spectator and the Field. In the latter paper there are two or three instances given of proceedings at coroners' inquests, which in themselves are sufficient to show how nonsensical it is to continue a mode of inquiry which simply, as the paper remarks, creates frequent ludicrous specimens of the "Jack in office."

In one instance, a working man at about one o'clock in the morning was walking over a canal bridge, and, seeing bubbles on the water, had suspicions, and at once called the police. The body of a man was soon found in the water, and an inquest was held accordingly. On the body of the drowned man was found a letter explaining his motive for suicide. When the working man gave his evidence

the coroner disallowed his expenses, on the ground that the witness had been guilty of gross impropriety in being out of his bed at such an hour as 1 a.m. He said that but for the papers found on the body of the deceased a most awkward suspicion would have attached itself to the working man as being the first to give the alarm that someone was drowning, and remarked that he might think himself lucky that his improper conduct in being out at such an hour had not caused him to stand charged Avith the man's death. There was no imputation that the witness had been drunk at the time. This is a splendid specimen of coroners' jurisdiction. Ln another case a servant gii*l drowned herself, and at the inquest an ex parte statement was made to the effect that the girl's reason for suicide was that she had been discharged from her late situation, and found that her father could not take her in. Thereupon the coroner took upon himself to send for the former mistress of the deceased, not that she had any evidence to give that could throw light upon the case; but simply to enable him to air his own opinions as to the responsibilities of mistresses with regard to servants. He then and there rated the mistress for not having found out where the girl was going before she left her service. The mistress had spirit enough to give the coroner as good as she got, and pertinently asked what sort of answer she or any other misti*ess would expect to receive from a servant of the period, if she officiously busied herself as to what the servant intended to do after leaving her service.

A further case is given, in which the Grand Jury ignored the charge preferred through the coroner, and the Judge made some strong observations on the folly of the coroner. A causeway in North London lies four feet above the road level—-a common circumstance with scores of footways ; an old woman, in liquor, fell down from the pavement into the roadway, and died from the injuries she received. At an inquest held on her the jury blamed the owners of the property—but did not return a direct verdict of manslaughter—on the ground that the causeway should not have been left in an unfenced state. Thereupon the coroner issued a warrant for manslaughter against the gentlemen who received the rents of the property on behalf of the owners. Not content with this, the coroner, who was personally acquainted with the gentleman charged, requested him in the most friendly manner to furnish evidence in support of the charge against himself !

The last case quoted is one which has of late excited the most painful interest in London, and which is known as the Balham mystery. In this case a young lawyer, not long married, died of poison. As the Field remarks, the inquiry may literally be said to have been burked. Medical witnesses who had attended Mrl Bravo during the last hours of his life were not called; no adjournment was made for a full and complete chemical analysis of the stomach and its contents ; nor was any attempt made to trace what had become of the remains of the bottle of wine in which it was presumed the poison had been contained. The coroner seems to have formed his own conclusions that the case was one of suicide, and to have ignored the principle that it was for the jury, and not for him, to decide upon facts adduced, and that it was his duty to lay before them every scrap of evidence that could possibly throw light upon the occurrence. With these instances before them, it is to be hoped that in the next debate on the Coroners Act Amendment Bill less may be heard of the excellent administration of "crowner's quest" law.