TARANAKI.

Wellington Independent, Volume VI, Issue 512, 7 September 1850, Page 2

TARANAKI.

An Inquest was held before P. Wilson, Esq., j"vl. D., Coroner, on the body of Eliza Bishop who met her death by drowning. The Jury after a patient and mature investigation of the evidence brought before it, returned the following verdict :-- That, the deceased Eliza Bishop, came by her death by drowning, at the time of .the shipwreck of the cutter William <5f James, on board of which vessel she was a passenger. The Jury cannot abstain from appending its opinion, that .the shipwreck of the aforesaid vessel, appears by every circumstance, to have resulted from, tlie .mast reprehensible negligence on thepartof its master, George Ncwnhatn; that the drowning of the deceased, Eliza Bishop, is mainly .to be imputed to the haste of the said master to .save his .own life, .and

likewise the neglect of proper exertion on the part of both him and the sailor Charles Jones in tho use of means to save her's, moreover that the said master is highly blameablo in abandoning the site of tho wreck while the probability remained of the female being alive, anil without despatching without delay tho man or boy in search of assistance, and which the Jury saw no reason to believe that he was ignorant of as being at no great distance from the place, nor is the Jury willing to separate without availing themselves of the opportunity to advert to recent and repeated instances of shipwreck resulting from carelessness on the part of those intrusted with the coasting trade within these hist few months, not fewer than three of our scanty number of trading vessels have been lost under precisely similar reckless circumstances, viz :—the Helen near Kawhia, the Eritio at the.Hcnui, and now the William and James at the Sugar Loaves, —the two former passed without public enquiry, and but for the lamentable loss of life in the last, it is not improbable but that it would also have been speedily hushed up and forgotten. Itisdesirable therefore.fhat an adequate measure were adopted the better to secure lives and property afloat, and that it be no longer an optional matter on the part of the owners to employ as masters whom they will, but that vessels bo alone entrusted to those who can demonstrate. to. legal authority, characters of good conduct, and the acquirements of a knowledge of their profession, to recommend them the appointment -of so important a charge.—Communicaled.