The Taranaki Herald. (DAILY EVENING) THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1912. THE TITANIC DISASTER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143769, 18 April 1912, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. (DAILY EVENING) THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1912. THE TITANIC DISASTER.

When the first news of the Titanic disaster reached New Zealand on Tuesday there were few people probably who feared that it meant anything' more than a big bill for repairs of the damage caused by collision with an iceberg. Although the cable stated that the vessel was sinking by the head and that the passengers were being transferred to the boats, reassurance was derived from the fact that, thanks to wireless telegraphy, assistance was on the way to the scene of the disaster as fast as a small fleet of steamers could carry, and from the later message that the Titanic was slowly making her way to Halifax. Even when subsequent messages made it all too clear that the steamer had gone down there seemed room for hope that at least the bulk of her complement of passengers and crew were safe, either on board the rescuing steamers or on the rafts and boat's which all steamers are compelled to carry. All this, however, was but a slight preparation for the terrible news which was to follow, that the ship had taken down with her something like thirteen hundred human beings. The loss is simply staggering in its enormity, and even now it<ds hard to realise what has occurred. The Titanic was the latest triumph of the shipbuilders’ skill; she was believed to be practically unsinkable; and not one of those two thousand odd people who left Southampton on board on Wednesday could have had a moment’s misgiving on the score of the dangers of the deep. As far as was humanly possible the ship was believed to be superior to those dangers. When she struck the fatal ice floe on Sunday evening it is possible that few of those on hoard realised the gravity of the situation ; hence the entire absence, so far as we know yet, of anything in the nature of a panic. The weather was fortunately fine, though bitterly cold, or the boats which were speedily filled with the women and children might have been lost too. Soon, however, it must have been discovered that the injuries were so great that the vessel could not remain, afloat long, and one shud-

ders to think of the effect of a full realisation of their impending - fate upon those hundreds of people. We may never know how those last moments were passed; it is almost too terrible to think of. The loss of the vessel, valuable as she was, and of the millions’ worth of diamonds and pearls of which the cables tell us, is of small account compared with the appalling loss of life. It is the greatest ocean tragedy on record, and it shows how puny, after all, are human efforts and skill against the overwhelming forces of Nature. It is too soon to criticise the lifesaving provision on board the stranier. i The inquiry which will follow will disclose wdiether this wn c in accordance with the Board of Trade regulations. All that can be said at present is to express the very deepest sympathy with the relatives and friends of those who have lost their-dives, and that whether the latter were millionaires or the humblest of the passengers and crew.