PAKEHA MISHAP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 31, 6 February 1925, Page 7

PAKEHA MISHAP.

THE INQUIRY CONTINUED. TESTING THE CHANNEL. (P.y Telegraph.—rress Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The nautical inquiry into the cause of the mishap to the steamer Pakeha was continued to-day. Mr. Andrew Bain, chairman of the Bluff Harbour Board, said the board had gone to considerable expense in blasting and dredging tlie Mararoa Rock since June li. Everything had been done to test the channel to the harbour for the purpose of ascertaining if there xvas any obstruction xvhich might have caused the damage to the Pakeha. Up to the present nothing had been discovered.

llie hoard also xvrote to the Marine Department asking them to undertake a survey, and he personally saxv the Minister regarding the matter. The board was very anxious to clear the matter up. Witness did not think the marks on the vessel's bottom had been received in the channel. His theory was that the vessel struck xvhen she xvas rolling, but she did not roll in the channel. Captain Clifton Mogg. master of the vcs.-cl, cross-examined regarding the distances Ihe vessel xvas from certain points on the coast during the trip from Port Chalmers to Bluff, said on one trip the distance from Waipapa Point was not noted. On a previous trip he had | noticed Waipapa Point was wrongly charted, and bad written to the Admiralty on the subject. At the time of the mishap on June :1 he xvas on the bridge and beard two sounds as the vessel xvas going up the channel. When ho heard the first sound he did not associate it with striking, but when he heard the second lie expressed the opinion to tile pilot that the vessel bail struck. lbe ,-asc is proceeding.