The telegram which Renter has sent from Auckland con- cerning
the evidence taken there as to the wreck of the 4 Wairarapa,' in which over a hundred lives were lost, in- cluding the captain's, is very melancholy, and even shocking. According to the evidence of the first officer, who was saved, the speed of the vessel was never relaxed, though the fog prevailed all day. Nor were fog-signals sounded. Worse still, after the vessel struck, according to the carpenter's .evidence, no orders were given to place the women and children in the boats, and the chief officer himself admitted that he left a mother and her child partly submerged in a corner of the ship, while he himself was hauled up on to the rigging by the steward. When he bethought himself of going to their assistance, he found that they had been washed away. All the usual precautions in a fog were neglected, and when the shock came, panic was allowed to sweep the minds of the officers as clear of magnanimous and generous impulses as the waves had swept the decks of the poor victims themselves.
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