The Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28,1884.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5171, 28 November 1884, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1884.

Some very important evidence was adduce**!at the meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board yesterday afternoon, in referenoe te the nature of the ocean current off _&____■* Peninsula. The tendency there is for vessels to drift inshore ha. been referred te, more or less vaguely, on various occasions j but it now seems that thu action of t_t« current under varying conditions is per-fi-ctly well known to some of the Perunsulft residents. Further, it appears almost remarkable — not that a disastrous wrecksuch as that of the ill-fated Clyde should have happened, but that the occurrence of shipwreck has not been far more frequent. According to the information given by Mr Tosswill, one of the members of the Board. the indraft of the current varies exceedingly. Presumably it is always apparent, but it is much stronger after southerly weather, and acquires a twofold force after a flood tide. Now the fatality conditions are not rare. Southerly weather wo are familiar with ; the tide may serf* with dangerous facility; and since th* atmosphere at the abatement of the storm " hangs thick " about the coast line, th* imminent peril for vessels coining into harbour may be said to exist with considerable frequency. Obviously the conditions of the current' ought to be mad* known as widely as possible, by mean ef special Gazette notices and comiiiunicatJoaa to all ports from whence trade is done witk this Colony; and presumably it was am oversight that the Board did not direct amemorandum on the subject to be forwarded at once to the Marine DepartmentMr Tosswill's information came out nt connection with a motion for calling the attention of the Minister of Marine to " the urgent necessity of at once replacing the present lifeboat at Akaroa with one of a better class." Of course tho Board unanimously adopted the rest-lut • on. Bot why, in the name of common sense, should they assert the existence of a " life " boat at th* present time ? From the accounts which. have been published, it has been mad* painfully evident that the crazy structur* at the Akaroa wharf never in her history was entitled to rank as a life-boat, and that for a long time past she has been a veritable death-trap ; a rotten shame ; a sea- ' coffin into which brave men have ventured, looking Death steadily ia the face, and scarcely keeping themselves i.3oat even by continuous baling. Mr Tosswill is perfectly right in asserting that " the present stat* of things is scandalous." We are not,however, disposed to agree with him in th* half-apologetic strain he adopted with. regard to the necessary purchase money. We assert that it is the imperative duty of the Government to procure a boat at th* earliest possible moment, and to get th* very best that can be had for the specud purpose, whatever the cost. , The poesibl* expenditure, Mr Tosswill thinks, can hardly be more than .£IOO. We say that if the involved expenditure be three, four, or fir* times that amount, it must be incurred unhesitatingly. Knowing the existence of s* grave a danger, knowing that many lives have been lost, and that other lives — th* lives of such men as no country can afford to lose — have been imperilled, there could be no greater Bin than to neglect the first * essential for succour. To provide lifesaving apparatus of an inotEcient sort would_be something more than a blunder.