James Green, master of the Ngahere, said that the vessel was about 20 tons short of her load. He described the speeds taken in taking the vessel out and up to the time of striking and the efforts to get her off. When the chief officer reported that the engineers were up to their waist in water, action was taken to get the crew ashore.
Heavy seas were then breaking over the vessel. Captain Green, continuing his evidence, said the ship was drawing 14 feet 9 inches forward, 15ft 8in aft.
According to the Harbour Board plan, there should have been 17ft of water on the bar at low water. There was a flood tide, and he expected 24ft when he went out. He had previously gone out drawing the same amount of water.
Witness heard no whistle to signify that the Regulus had hit the bar when she went out. He was quite satisfied that he carried out the orders from the harbourmaster.
William Arthur Wildman, who was in charge of the Regulus on the day of the wreck, said his vessel was drawing 12ft 4in. He struck the bottom fairly heavily at the lighthouse, and sounded his whistle, giving one short blast immediately. The inner bar was the one he struck.
The Greymouth harbourmaster Captain Cox gave evidence as to the depth of the bar observed at the time. He said the ship took a peculiar course. He did not hear the Regulus whistle, although he watched closely.
Breaking it off
Whatever the reason and the circumstances may be, the breaking of an engagement means, for both the breaker and the broken, a very bad quarter of an hour.
However difficult it may be for a girl to claim release from her promise to marry, it is a much more difficult task for a man. The more manly he is, the more he shrinks from inflicting the pain and humiliation upon a woman which the breaking of his engagement involves.
When the reason for saying "good-bye" is due to outside conditions, there is no excuse for not facing the situation frankly. Marriage is, after all, a contract, and if during the course of the engagement, the circumstances of either party become entirely different from what they were at the beginning of it, explanation and offer of release becomes a plain duty. To shirk it is to marry under false pretences.
But in the vast majority of cases the impulse to break comes from falling out of love, or possibly from the realisation that what looked like love was a mere transitory infatuation which has died a speedy death.
How is a man who has ceased to care for a girl whom he has asked to be his wife, to confess the brutal truth, especially if he feels that her feeling for him has undergone no change? As a rule, he avoids taking the initiative, hoping that she will recognise the signs of his cooling devotion, and give him the freedom which he dares not ask for.
And usually these tactics are successful, for women, even the least intelligent, know by intuition when the divine fire begins to flicker out.
However careful he is not to hurt her by open indifference, however desperately she may try to deceive herself, in her heart a woman always knows when love lies a-dying. Under these circumstances she owes it to herself to set her lover free at whatever sacrifice.
If she is weak enough to cling to him in the vain hope of rekindling the dead embers, she will either force him to blurt out the cruel truth in a moment of exasperation, or drag him into a reluctant marriage with the certainty of misery for both.
When the girl is the first to tire the same counsel holds good. The truth, and nothing but the truth, is the only foundation upon which happiness in marriage can be built. — ODT, 29.5.1924
Compiled by Peter Dowden
