The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR. Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1894. THE WRECK OF THE WAIRARAPA.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume II, Issue 223, 2 November 1894, Page 2

The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR. Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1894. THE WRECK OF THE WAIRARAPA.

New Zealand and the neighboring colonies havo been plunged in the most profsund grief by the terrible news of the wreck of the Union steamship Wftirarapa, with 230 souls on board, of whom, according to the latest advices, 134 have lost their lives. The wreck is the most appalling marine catastrophe that has yet occurred on our coasts, even eclipsing the loss of the steamer Tararua on Friday, 28th April, 1881, when 122 lives were l®st. Following so closely upon the loss of the Rodondo the terrible event cannot fail to impress upon the minds of those who go down to tho sea in ships a feeling of insecurity and danger. Tho most inexplicable thing in connection with the disaster is its cause. So far no reason has been given for the ship being so far out of her course ; and there seems to have been a most remarkable reticenoo observed concerning the cause of the catastrophe. So far as we can learn from our telegrams there has been an entire absence oven of theories to account for the wreck. Mention of everything prior to the actual occurrence seems to have been carefully avoided. Captain Macintosh had the reputation of being one of the most capable and careful masters in the Company’s service, and no blame can be attached to him until the full facts are known. Officers, crew, and passengers appear to have behaved heroically in the dread hour of peril. With almost certain death before them there was no panic, no cowardice. The bearing of all in the supreme moment of danger compels a feeling of the highest admiration even in the depths of sorrow. But what an awful time it must have been. Wives swept from the arms of their husbands and drowned in full view ; children perishing before the eyes of their parents, powerless to assist them ; bodies battered to an unrecognisable mass against the cruel rocks by the merciless waves. What a depth of anguish and suffering must have been compressed into these long hours when the survivors clung to the rigging or to the inhospitable rocks which yet afforded them a precarious refuge from the waves What bitterness of sorrow must have been experienced by the survivors at the loss of their loved ones—grief almost predominating over thankfulness at their own rescue. It was an awful, a heartrending scene. One’s heart bleeds at the thought of it. Whataworldof mat< rnal lovoi-. revealed in the few lines of the telegraphic message which tells us that no women with children in arms were saved. Nobly they perished with their offspring, true to the instincts of maternity. All tho qualities of heroes and heroines were brought out in that terrible time. The grief of the colony is profound. The enormity of the catastrophe lias touched every heart. From one end of the colony to the ,other the universal feeling is one of the deepest sorrow, and heartfelt sympathy with the relatives of those who have lost their lives, and with the survivors who have endured such a terrible ordeal.