THE New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1896. A UNIVERSAL TRUTH.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 2852, 22 June 1896, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1896. A UNIVERSAL TRUTH.

With which are incorporated the Wellington Indevendant , established 1845, and the New Zealander .

It is tho morning newspaper that reaches, and is read by, the substantial and intelligent people who have money to spend and know what they want. Hence its superiority as an advertising medium. THE DRUMMOND CASTLE. It is one of those awful tales of tho sea which begin by making the blood freeze with horror and end by making it boil with indignation. The suddenness of the catastrophe appals us, and the ueedlesness of it moves us to anger, while tho unvarying monotony of tho records is suggestive. A ship of magnificent proportions goes to soa, well equipped, well found in every respect. She has power, she is stronger than tho sea in its worst moods, her people in tho midst of their comforts regard themselves as beyond the reach of danger absolutely. There comes a fog hiding the horizon, shrouding everything in mist impenetrable. The ship goes rushing on through tho water at her terrible rate. . On the bridge stands tho master vainly trying to see tho invisible. His officers are beside him ; it is regarded by sqilor men as a great precaution, but as they cannot see any better, it is only enlarging the vain attempt to see the invisible. Hour after hour tho throb of I the engines tells of the miles left behind, hour after hour those anxious men peer into the fog trying to convince themselves that their vigilance is in some ' way useful, hoping that the mist which I shuts them out from the world may not ' prove to be their funeral pall. The noise of I whistles and foghorns proclaims to the whole ship’s company that the great ship under them ia rushing blihdly at large ■ *■ ..v.C03420*“*-'. - 1

over the sea. It is known that the only guide over the waters is tho dead reckoning which is at best a feeler after the unknown. Tho decks gradually fill with silent muffled figures standing about in groups, peering ahead, joining in tho rain attempt of the bridge to seo the invisible. Tho fog remains coldly impenetrable, the ocean keeps its secrets remorselessly, the ship goes rushing on, the tension of nerve and anxiety of mind on board have reached the distressful pitch. There is a sudden crash, an awful pause, a single voice gives an order bold and clear, half a dozen take it up. As vain tho attempt to launch tho boats as the attempt to see tho invisible. In three minutes the great ship has golte, and her people are dying in the water with their funeral pall settling around them. Sometimes not one is spared. In this case three wretched survivors have travelled out of tho Noyado on precarious fiotsam to tell the miserable tale. Tho worst feature of tho tale is that it is exactly like all the other tales of the fogs and mists of the ocean. We may wonder how it is that, in spite of all the care of the builders to build ships in compartments, which by their title of “ watertight ” guarantee against sinking, nevertheless ships go down so suddenly as they do at times. But when a rock tears a couple of hundred feet out of a ship as she rushes past with her momentum of thousands of tons, the water is lot into every compartment in succession j and they all become not loss watertight, but full of water. In the Case of the Drummond Castle the forward compartments filling simultaneously sent the ship down head foremost at once. The cause of the disaster is the practice on which these wrecks throw from time to time a lurid light. It is tho practice of running full speed through fogs. At tho bottom of that practice is the great cost of steam craft which require rapid runs to make voyages profitable. Competition brings cheapness, and cheapness by bringing death and disaster defeat* itself. Tho curse of cheapness is over all things. In somo lines tho only tiling expected of tho masters is to get there quick, and come back without telling tales. If a fishing smack disappears in the darkness, and tho cries of husbands and fathers are heard piteously rising for help, it is the seafowl. If a liner crowded with passengers is run down, there is no stopping on any account. If a master does not get there in time, or if ho brings bock tales, ho gets Iris discharge and ati his chance of employment is go no. The remedy for tho evil is simple enough theoretically. It i-l to make it criminal to insure steamers for a service which does not have a rule to slow down and stop in fogs, to make running at full speed in fogs criminal, and in tho absence of such a rule to force directors of companies to show why they shall not in cases of disaster bo punished for aggravated manslaughter. In practice over a world commercially so complex as oitrs tho remedy would be difficult. But that is no reason why no attempt should bo made to mako law effective whoro conscience has failed.

HANSARD. The reasons for the delay in the tii-Vveokly are obviously those which belong to the first working Cf new machinery. But enough has been shown to lot us see what the chances are of the early success of tho venture. It is not the printing that delays, nor is it that the delivery of the , reports to members is irregular and often late. Any faiilta of that kind can be remedied, and are by this time remedied, according to promise made during Friday afternoon’s discussion front the. Govern* mont benches. The main cause tor delay, as we pointed 01H 5k ftould bo, is tho neglect of several iherabers to correct their - reports in time. These evidently think ; that the task is rather a boro. On tho other hand the evidence of those who have corrected their reports up to time is j that the work is very much simpler. They all say that they would far rather read the larger-lettered, widerlined type-written copy, with its huge margins—due to the mounting of the reports on big sheets of paper—than the small type of the close-lined, 'narrowmargined proof sheets-, tt nlay be thought that as scoii ts this Advantage has been more generally realised there will be no delay in the correcting. It may be hoped, [ in addition, that the enforcement of promptitude of correction will exercise a • salutary influence by making speakers condenso the remarks which they will have to correct quickly under penalty of having them published without revision. These things are possible. But we fear that they are improbable. We shall see when tho evening sittings become protracted and tho morning committee work becomes > heavy. In the meantime we were glad to * notice on Friday afternoon that the House seemed quite careless of the privilege of Correction. When the member for Clutha said that newspaper reports of platform speeches never required correction, and ; drew the obvious inference, there was no protest, but raiher many distinct signs of approval. Several members distinctly said that they valued the privilege of correction, but that they valued the prompt publica* tion of Hansard more. After all, the proper* tion of error in the reporting is small. , What errors there are, if published, can be corrected by a statement made briefly in ; the Houso, and published in Hansatd, where it will be indexed. That is quite sufficient protection, and will, we believe, be found so by most members. The objections taken to the abolition of the practice of correction have always been theoretical, and men fond of tho humorous side of the world of things misreported and misprinted have revelled in them for talking’s sake. We predict that if the practice announced on Friday of keeping to tho hours of going to press, whether the speeches are corrected; or"not, is properly enforced, the practice of correction will be given up. We must point out, however, that unless the reports are type-written in duplicate, the publication of Hansard will bo at the mercy of every member who chooses to carry his report about in his pocket regardless. Duplicate the reports, go to press at the fixed hours, and Hansard will bo punctual enough to be promptly read all over the laud. FREE OBSTRUCTION OF THE STREETS. Oua City Fathers are too venerable to understand plain things. Freo speech is a groat boon, and that boon has a history of which we are all proud. But that is not a reason for allowing tho liberty of speech to run into license. Freedom of speech is not exactly like the Ark of tho Covenant on which no sacrilegious hand could be laid. On the contrary it is a thing very much discussed, and kept in order in various ways. No one, for example, is allowed to slander, traduce, or libel his neighbour, and no one can use language which is bad, coarse, repulsive, abusive. The law gives aggrieved persons under such circumstances remedies j the law takes care, in fact, that freedom of speech does not degenerate into license. Now if the sacred right of free speech is not a defence either in law or in fact against protests by aggrieved persons, it cannot be a defence against the protests of any persons aggrieved who have lights of any kind. There is, for example, the right of the free use of the streets, undisturbe i by throngs blocking the thoroughfares, or noises penetrating to sick rooms. The Municipal Council regards freedom of speech as a strong reason for taking away from the citizens the rights for which as citizens they pay a regular contribution every year; as well as the rights which they enjoy as members of a civilised community. This is absurd. The unfortunate result of ( tho absurdity is that in Wellington the first consequence of freedom of speech is freedom of obstruction. Now, obstruction l is what we want to put an end to. It is ! intolerable that freedom of speech should bo distorted into a reason for the annoyance of tho citizens by the obstruction of J their streets. 1