The Southland Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, JANUARY 31.

Southland Times, Issue 3312, 31 January 1879, Page 2

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, JANUARY 31.

♦ The age is resonant with the crash of wrecked railway trains, 'vessels colliding at sea, and ,the .screams and cries of drowning, burning, and crushed creatures suddenly brought face to face with death, under circumstances of awful terror and/horror. As a rule, and the rule 'has very few exceptions, these terrible calamities are to be traced to the incompetence, carelessness, of" drunkenness of those in charge, and in many cases to the cupidity of proprietors, who, in furnishing forth the conveyances by which the public travel, reduce the margin of safety to a mere line for the sake of cheapness. Accidents by sea and land happen, catastrophes occur, and - hundreds and thousands of our , fellow creatures are suddenly hurried into eternity, or are so maimed and crippled that life becomes a mere burden. .The annals of the day are full ofsttch fearful catastrophes, their • c :urrence is frequent and regular, indeed the regularity has something hideous about it, just as if the finger of inexorable fate had marked down what was to occur of ihe horrible at stated intervals. To save life now," under circumstances of extreme peril, is scarcely hoped for by travellers. They go and come upon the chance of escaping peril, and when it finds -fcliem there is simply a, fierce struggle for life, then resignation, and all is over. The weaker, as a rule, go to the wa11... Natural? selection, and the survival of the physically fittest too often asserts its i controlling : influence ; the heroic chivaliy that prompts the ; strong to^feave;tiie "we|ik:;'at the risk of seif-sacnfi'ce^ and: which .is one of the characteristics that distinguish man of high-degree from "the brute, is seldom practised because it is not felt, and so '' where "alliis confusion'and wailing des- | pair, the few escape, and the many are taken. -This has been particularly apparent in all, serious calamities connected with emigrant ships, and in their case is scarcely to be averted, for it is tacitly admitted that, as emigrant ships are packed nowadays 7 with 7 their living freight/, ?itf is iimpbsi^bliio. provide enough appliances to save all; some must go, let the desire of those who control matters on board'be ever, so strong to. save. There is something ludicrously grim in the preliminary precautions taken by the emiigration authorities, in Britain, to ensure safety during the? voyage when it is perfectly 'uiide^ all the time, that when outside help is not at hand only a majority, under the 7most7 favorable circumstances of accident at seay csiii' be saved? There is a minority upon whom the shadow of? death: always rests'. And this: will continue to be the case until the number carried are exactly equivalent to the capacity of the means .provided to save them. ' When the. news of disaster having, overtaken "an' emigrant ship is first received men hold their breaths for the details, nothing doubting that a long list of lost' 'ihust be priesehted:? Just a handful of survivors perhaps to /tell the tale, and this has become so common that wonder is no longer excited, and only a passing . shock i^'im.pa'^d';ta i the7 sympathies. To: paraphrase ? Macbeth— -we have supped so fall of horrors that direness, familiar to our thoughts, cannot once start us. On the btHer 7 hand, surprise mingled with delight. assails 7 us when we. hear of either diverted or overcome, and all well with those threatened. Such were the feelings induced when the news of the narrow, escape of the emigrant ship Piako came . to hand. She was placed in awful peril from that -most' terrible of all;. .assailants at sea — fire— and' but . that -the circumstances of her case were exceedingly favorable there would have been another sacrifice of life to place, on. record., , The details of the Piako's : misadventure are^very pleasant to peruse, for they tell of good management from first to last, of presence of mind, and readiness of resource on the part of the master of the ship and his officers, of obedience and discipline on the part of the: ? crew, y and fortitude _, -patience, and order| on;? the pari; b&the. emigrants. .And all this was-supple-mented in^thp^ery? mcfc_o£time by succour, too often ""at hand. The course adopted by Captain Boyd could not have been bettered. His ship on fire and crowded with emigrants, he, after transhipping the bulk 'of them to the barque Loch. Dqon which, most fortunately, appeared upon the 'scene when needed, at once bore up for Pernambuco, theAnearestport, and, -with the barque following, reached it' without further misadventure. '' It must' be admitted that the Piako w,as. particularly favored by circumstances ; she was in tropical seas, where 1 fine weather can almost be depended upon, and assistance was forthcoming when most required. Still, in the midst of all this, it is apparent that good management was exercised, and Captain Boyd has earned ,for himself- enviable notoriety in having met such dire peril, and yet escaped serious result of loss of life when there was so much to lose, and so easily. His .after action was also most judicious' in/'Svlien the ship reached Pernambuco, isolating the emigrants in a comparatively healthy position. It was a measure of indispensable precaution if they were to be preserved from the attacks of the insidious and fatal diseases of -the -country they 'so nnex-' pectedly found themselves in. . The excellence of the immigration ; system of this colony was brought into bold relief by this phase of the affair.' Although far .on their, way to the antipodes, the emigrants were still under the control- of the department. The farseeing' and thoughtful'- Agent-General instituted immediate measures to render their safety doubly assured by removipg tUem'ftVW w^ucpng-ein^ cpma^e, " The

resolution he came to, to have all, who "chose, returned to their native" lahd, was dictated by prudence and wisdom, And is to <be commended only. There was , great i risk attached to the' residencl of , three or four hundred - fuU-blooded natives of & temperate "clime, -irfesh from Jhome, in a country where yellow fever and smallpox was rife at the time, and nothing, less residence there optional on the part of the emigrants justifiable" on the Agent- * --General's part.- Had *he -not* done -this, and had they been attacked by/disease, - thfr'last would never have : Tse'en" Theard of it. Regarding their reputation as , carriers somewhat at stake, the New Zealand Shipping Company naturally desired to fulfil the original contract, and demurred -to the proposed return of any of the emigrants, nothing doubting .that with .due care they -would~safely tide over - the period of detention on-shore. From all we can gather the company behaved with the, utmost, liberality and. care of their charges, but for all that the risk espied by Sir Julius Vcgel was too marked to be passed -over unnoticed ; and then again there was valid objection to the emigrants continuing the' voyage in a vessel that had' just been scuttled and then raised. Certainly' such a^one would not have been selected for chartering at home for emigration purposes. We are not cleai-ly advised as to whether any of the emigrants accepted Sir Julius Yogel' s offer, or if all decided to stand by the ship. The latest news about her says she " sailed with her living freight" from Pernambuco, on December 29th, and hence we infer that a great many, if not all, the immigrants are still -with her. But whether they, are or not, the precautions taken in their favor are thoroughly recommendatory. Ketrospection in the case of the Piako ' disaster is pleasing throughout. It does not present one disagreeable feature beyond the risk incurred by ship and passengers. All that was done was for-the best, and was' attended with the best results, and our worst wish to emigrants is, that should tliey ever be exposed to deadly peril at sea they may escape as lightly as did those on board the Piako.