Apr. 29.
The accident to the steamer Kamo on the Amherst Rocks last week and the letter sign "Waste Paper Basket" which appeared in the correspondence. columns of the "North-China Daily News" yesterday have again brought up the very vexed question of the lighting of the [Yangtze Estuary and more particularly of the Amherst Rocks. The Amherst Rocks have sent. many a good ship to its door and for some years past there has been a steady agitation for the proper lighting of the Rocks jan aid to navigation. The case put forward by master mariners sailing up and down the coast is that some form of visible warn-jing should be stationed at, this perilous spot, whether it takes: the form of an attended light or: Jan unwatched one. The pro-agonists of either of these suggestions very bitterly ask the [question as to how many more leasualties are to occur in_ the vicinity of the Amherst Rocks: before something in the nature lof a remedial measure is taken jin hand. The attitude of the Coast Inspector's Department, Jat least since 1928, has been tha! the erection of a perm light on the rocks, while would be very expensive; while [the objection to an unwatched light appears to be that it would be unreliable not only from the danger of its going out but because the deposit of salt on ithe glass of the -lamp would greatly diminish the vis the light. As an alterns the adoption of the wireless beacon system was suggested by the Customs, and upon that alternative the officials appear to base the whole of their case.
But that was four years ago, Jsince when it is contended that [though wireless beacons have been put into use there are not sufficient of them to obviate the danger which the Amherst Rocks present. Since September, 1931, very fair amount of negotia-ition has been going backwards jand forwards between shipping representatives and the Coast inspector, in which the former reiterate their desire that an. junwatched light should be established - on the Amherst Rocks, the point apparently being Jconceded that the establishment lof a proper light was too costly. The demand for an unwatched ight at this point seems to be based upon the contention that: the lights in this area are not! es
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.