The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1879, 11 January 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 1875.

The news of the loss by burning of the Cospatrick immigrant ship has created ft profound sensation of sadness in this community, as it will have done in other places in Kew Zealand—-the city and Province of Auckland particularly. Happily for us such .events are of rare occurrence, tlie passage of vessels to New ZealandL having hitherto been regarded as a comparatively safe one. It is true there have been vessels lost, but never "before ha« there been anything like such a, casualty in connection with the passenger trade to New Zealand as that whicfi has befallen the Cospatrick. Some years ago the fine ship. Burraah was lost within easy sail of Sew Zealand. She had been spoken in the southern latitudes by. another New Zealand bound ship; from which time nothing more was heard of hor. Fire was supposed to, have overtaken the Burmah; by others it was conjectured that she had gone too fir South and got sorunched up by icebergs. Her passengers, however, were few, and her fate—being for a long time veiled in an uncertainty which has not even yet been cleared :up, and probably never will — did not produce that wide-spread grief which the burning of the Gpspatrlck has done. This fine ship was bringing to Auckland nearly fire hundred souls-^-many of whom were coming out here at the invitation of friends. Her passengers were numerous enough to form an ordinary colonial village; and they were doubtless full of hope and expectation* when the most terrible calamity that could happen at sea overtook them. It appears that only three persons have escaped to tell the tale; and their experiences must have been of such » bitter nature that, under similar circumstances, ,many persons would have felt inclined," like Job, to "curse God and die." To have to sustain life by eating one's kind seems abominable; and such appears to hare been the lot of the Cospatrick survivors. We fear tMt a sad tale of panic and disorder—<>f want of discipline and palpable weakness on the part of those in authority will be told by the wretched survivors.

A fire on board ship genera ly gives suffi-

cient warning for every preparation being jnade in taking to the boats, even to victualling, watering, and provision for navigation^ The fact that only two boats got away from the Cospatrick suggests that something must have gone wrong at an early stage in the dreadful calamity—that the ship.-'-was inadequately provided with boats, or that the arrangements on board when the fire ; was discovered were of a very imperfept description. Speculation, liowever, is useless. Before us is the fact that a fine ship and nearly five hundred lives have been sacrificed; every community in this colony will be more or less afflicted ', and it will be remembered as a duty by every one that out of the scanty materials to be obtained from the survivors will have to be elicited all Jftafi can hp of any use in elucidating the

cause of such a fearful catastrophe ; which has caused sorrow to hundreds in this Province—and the Colony. Tho bereaved ones in our community will have the sympathy of their fellow settlers. This will not restore the dead to life, but it may perhaps help to allemto the priof of sorrowing friends to know that a general sympathy has been awakened by a disaster which is general in its effects, although most poignant to those who are immediately concerned.