THE OAMARU MAIL MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1919. THE TAINUI DISASTER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13903, 3 November 1919, Page 3

THE OAMARU MAIL MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1919. THE TAINUI DISASTER.

The. finding of the Nautical Court which held an exhaustive inquiry into the loss of the little steamer Tainui fully confirms the assumption that the disaster was the. result of a benzine explosion, due to cases in a leaky condition being shipped. The judgment of the Court is emphatic upon the point, but not one whit more so than the very definite evidence, warranted. No more severe and complete indictment oi all concerned has ever been issued by a Court, of the kind. The finding not onlv exposes- a flagrant callousness m respect to the safety of the ship and the lives of those, on board, but declares lhat the vessel was structurally unlit to carry cargo of such a dangerous and hi'dilv inflammable nature as benzine. And yet info the holds of tins unsuitable vessel were put leaking cases ot benzine, and then, as if to add to the risk' of disaster, ploughs were tumbled on top in a seemingly haphazard fashion We need not go into the whole oi the details of the disgraceful business, which resulted in the loss ot five human lives. What we arc concerned with is the fact that a vessel absolutely unsuitable "for the reception and conveyance of petroleum" was permitted to engage in the trade and that tne original absence of safety was grossly aggravated bv taking in petrol m such a condition that it ought not to havebeen permitted to enter the hold ot any vessel, no matter how well adapted structurally for bearing cargo oi the kind that vessel might be. Danger was disregarded and disaster courted, lite vessel went to sea under conditions that should have been peremptorily forbidden, and the punishment tor so flaorant a violation of reason and utter callousness as to the jeopardising ot the lives of the crew came m a disaster that shocked the whole community. But the evidence adduced at- the inquiry established the fact that the case of tie Tainui was not an isolated instance of the regulations concerning the carriage of benzine being totally disregarded bv people in pursuit of gam, and we are. confronted with the disclosure that, while stringent regulations have been made to ensure safety, nothing of a practical nature has been done, to enforce compliance. A wise, prudent, and necessary law has been broken and no heed paid to the breaches. Things have 'been permitted to drift from bad to worse, and the inevitable disaster has occurred. While it can be urged with force that the ow-ners of the vessel are responsible tor the sacrifice of life that has been made as the result of indifference in the matter of essential precautious, it is impossible to exonerate the authorities from blame. The Marine Department comes out of the lamentable affair very badlv. and the question.-may well be asked who was to blame for the grave neglect to see that the regulations were obeved. Had the Department discharged "its duty it would have taken such action as would have compelled observance of the stipulated precautions. There has been a serious laxity in administration, and the Minister will fall short of the requirements if he fails to discover where the fault lies and to provide the remedy.

LAND AGGREGATION. From quite an unexpected quarter there has come evidence to support th, oft-repeated allegation that land aggregation has been going on in the Dominion, and that, too, upon a large scale. We get this confirmation from the annual sheen returns, the chief figures of which were telegraphed to us by our Wellington correspondent, and appeared in our last issue. Thereupon we learned that not only had there been a decrease of over a million in the sheep of the Dominion during the Year ended 30th April last, but that the number of owners had also decreased by 775. That fact is significant. During the year there had been some subdivision of runs and some partitionment of land for settlement purposes, and in the natural course of things there should have 'been an increase of sheepowners. But there has been a decrease of 778, or nearly 3£ per cent. Now. as a result of the subdivision of estates that' took place in the year we ought to have had an increase, and not a decrease, and we can fairly claim that the loss in numbers has been fully 5 per cent. It certainly has not arisen because farmers have gone voluntarily and wholly out of wool and muttongrowing, for these are branches ol rural industry that have given the greatest amount of profit at the smallest dependence upon labor. It is well to remember when pondering the subject that, except in the case of those who are purely dairy farmers, every farmer is an owner of sheep to some ext-ent, and consequently is counted in the total. How comes it, then, there, were fewer sheepowners at the 30th April last than there were on the same date of the previous year? There are onlv two possible answers —either the new occupiers are mere dummies for others or aggregation has outstripped settlement,' and that, if we exclude such new dairy farms pure and simple as have been created, there was no bona fide settlement during the year under review. The result has %een very largely the product of Mr Massey's tampering with the Land Act oi the

j Liberal Government, which did promote settlement- on a large scale and lender the Dominion prosperous.