FIRES IN WOOL SHIPS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12591, 6 September 1906, Page 9

FIRES IN WOOL SHIPS.

gl THE ROYAL COMMISSION. The Royal Commission, consisting of r A Dr. Sic Arthur, S.M., Captain Blackfe burne, and Mr W. G. Foster, which has ji£ fj eßß appointed to enquire into the $ cause* oi ni'os in vessels carrying wool, 'f g BX tow, or other combustible match rial, resumed its sittings in the Provin- '-. c_l Council Chambers yesterday. ' George Ellis, one of Tuesday's wit- \ nnsacS) produced for the information ot the Commission some samples ot

charred wool. Charles Hobbs, storeman for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantilo Agency, sail that, when he found wool damp, the Inks was stripped and dried. Tho only case of boated wool he had experienced occurred last year, and it was iu-loose baled wool. His firm did not ship iocka that he knew of. He had not noted heat in dried skins, and had neror seen fire in them or in the undried skins, though the latter often became heated through sweating under Edward Smith, superintendent of the Fire Brigade, described his experience in connexion with the fire that occurred yon the Beltana at Lyttelton in IbSU. After tho general outbreak was extinguished, tlie wool was still on fire. Tho centre of tho wool and tho fiides wore badly burnt. Ho did not notice any hales with tho centre burned away and the outside intact. Tho burned portions wero pretty well cinders. Even after the tiro was suppressed by tho use of chemicals, it would not havo been ejife for the vessel to proceed on her voyage without taking out the cargo. Witness thought that the gunpowder once used in a certain din factory in Christchurch was only used for dips for dogs, and not for sheep dip. A few days ago he had seen wool packing round a boiler ablaze, the wool being sot afiro by the heat from the furnace below. Each vessel should carry a chemical cylinder, and there would be no danger of a vessel boing burned at sea. Inspection beforehand was tho only preventive lie could suggest. Arthur Ernest Cooper, meat and wool exporter, said that he had never known of a bale of wool becoming heated during the timo he was with the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company. His firm (Sims and Cooper) shipped slipes, and he did not see them. Tho freezing works baled this wool, and the shipping companies.dumped it. His firm's wool on the Rimutaka and Gothic was all sold, though catalogued as "water and fire damaged." Tlie price it brought > was much lower tlian it would have realised if it had not been through a fire. William Henry Reynolds Dale, in charge of the Now Zealand Shipping Company's eiheds nt Lyttelton., statea that ho received wool, dumped it, and held it until required for shipment. Tho wool would not be stopped unless it was discovered by a storeman to bo in a heated condition). Thero was no iriflpcctkai of the wool before it was dumped. All he and his men 'had to j see to was that tho pack was in good . order outside and not heated. Dumped wool might remain a month or six weeks beforo shipment. Sometimes at tiho end of that timo ihe had found j bales heated, and 00 par oent. of them J wore sliped wool. Greasy wool also j became heated, as did also low-class wool in a fow oases where it was not properly skirted or had vegetable cr mineral- matter in it. Witness bad never known clean, dry fleoco wool to become heated. Wool that was , deemed wot was sont 'back to be Booured or dried. Witness hod on rare occasions known of station- wcol coming • in wet, and he had 1 had wet wool come to 'him from Belfast and other stations, the wetness being due to improper loading or sheeting. Witness knew or one case where wool lay out one night in the company's own siding sheeted in trucks. Tli© trucks might be put into the siding after 5 p,m., when there' would be no ono there to receivo it. j He had'krujiwn ordinary pressed bales to generate heat, and these heated . bales would nover be dumped. Thero waa no means by which he could find , out the tcmporatn.ro of the inside of a I bale. Witness could not say whether a ' higher proportion of locks and pieces was shipped last year than before that, as the quality or the wool he handled was not hin 'business. Last year the same supervision was exercised by him as in the year previous, when* there were no fires in tho wool. He thought the damp season might account for the outbreaks. Last year thore were not many cases of wool gotting wet in ' transit, and ha wily any of tho wool j : becoming heated. The railway took , possession) of the wool when it left the i company's! sheds, and after that wit- ' neca knew nothing about what happened to it. Ho always put a double sheet on ths trucks, and a single bale on tho top, bo as to make a sloping . roof, thereby allowing the rain to run off. He was mot aware of any regulation compelling shippers to load a certain number of bales in a truck, thus producing a flat roof. Witness had had experience with flax, and had never ; known it to become heated, though he had often found it wet. He had handled tow in, a damp state also, and had only onoe found it heated. There were throe trucks of it in this case, and the tow was strongly impregnated with foreign matter. Ho sont it back , again, ana never heard of this particular lot again. As to the proposal to pass a regulation to compel wool i to be kept in the store for a certain time before shipment, witness conld not say for certain how long ho could hold it At any rate, he could not hold it long—probably not for more than two

'or three days. Even tho system of ' supervision! that prevailed some years ago was not satisfactory, but he thought that it was a reasonable plan to return to the old system of supervising wool after its arrival in port. Witness k then volunteered a statement in reference to flax, stating that he had taken two bales of flax, poured water on them, aud kept them for ninety days, and still no hoat was. generated, though the inside of the bales was rotten. The danger arising from flax was reduced to a minimum by the grading system. Arthur Hugh Turnbull, merchant, stated that ho bought wool chiefly at auction sales, and had bought from growers direct perhaps once in a year. He sent no wool by the Gothic, Rimu-

taka, Waimate, or Pitcairn Island last year, but by the Shaw, Savill boata. He had never had losses in his shipments tltrough fire, had never had any experience of serious heating. Dampness might do damage with scoured wool, but not with greasy wool. Witness then made a statement to the effect that ho considered all reason- " ablo supervision was exorcised both before and after tho wool reached port. The, cause of the outbreaks, to his mind, was the practice of smoking and carrying matches on wharves and ships, and* to a great- extent tho imperfect ventilation of the holds. Asked as to how ho would account for the Rimutaka'a fire, which only broke out when the vessel was discharging, witness replied that probably his explanation covered that case. He could not ac- ' count for bale* being found charred in the centre only. The Commission then adjourned until 10.30 this ihorjjing.