ABOARD AWATEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 126, 31 May 1938, Page 7

ABOARD AWATEA.

Aucklander Who Was Bidding G<ood-bye to Friends.

BREAKS AWAY AT SYDNEY.

(Received 1 p.m.)

SYDNEY, this day

A man describing himself as Frederick Butler, aged 35, a baker, who came from Auckland on the Awatea, and who claimed that he had been carried on when saying farewell to a party on board, was told that he would not be allowed to land in Sydney.

He was locked in the hospital cabin, but escaped by breaking open the door.

Extensive inquiries in Anckand this fore-no.on-failed to trace anyone of the name of Frederick Butler as having been registered with the Bakers' Union, the Drivers' Union, or at the Placement Office.

LONDON TUBE SMASH.

CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT.

LONDON, May 24.

The cause of the accident on the London underground railway in which seven people were killed, was a wrong connection in the signal wiring, made during alterations to the installation the previous night.

This was revealed when the public inquiry instituted by the Ministry of Transport opened.

In a statement on behalf of the London Transport Board an official said:— "The signalling system on the district railway line, where the accident occurred, consists of automatic and semiautomatic signals, all of which are controlled by track circuits.

"The system is designed to ensure that no signal is operated to the 'clear' position while the train is standing on the section it is intended to protect.

"The east-bound starting signal at Charing Cross failed to give this security on this occasion.

"The board has made the closest investigation into its failure and has ascertained it was due to a wrong connection in the wiring of the signal. This wrong connection was made during alterations to the installation at this point carried out the previous night. "A check test which is required and provided following such work also failed. The faults were not in the system of signalling, but were in the way in which the signal was dealt with during maintenance. The board is taking steps to tighten up the procedure to prevent as far as humanly posj sible the repetition of such a fault."