KOTITI ENQUIRY.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20469, 12 February 1932, Page 11

KOTITI ENQUIRY.

EVIDENCE CONCLUDED YESTERDAY. JUDGMENT TO BE DELIVERED EARLY. ,1-B.ESS ASSOCIATION TELEOKAU.) WELLINGTON, February 11. further evidence relating to the loss of the motor-vessel Kotiti was heard by Mr E. Page, S.M., and his two assessors, Captain G. Wilkinson and Mr p. W. Grainger, to-day, when the. Marine enquiry was continued. , Earlier in the enquiry the Collector of Customs at Westport stated that the ship had put to sea without a deck-loading permit, and the harbourmaster said that he and the signalman would have preferred the Kotiti, to have waited until daylight before leaving. Constable Audley, of tolling wood, expressed the opinion that the telegraphist, Hamilton Matthews, whose body was found on Farewell Spit, was alive when he reached • the shore. _ The enquiry entered on the third day this morning. Frederick Clark, secretary and manager of the Oparara Shipping Company, owners of the vessel, was cross-exam-ined by counsel for the Seamen s Union, who suggested that the whole < policy of the company was to keep down the cost of repairs on the_ vessel. Witness: There was no sense in keeping down repairs if we wanted to keep the vessel seaworthy. . Counsel: Don't you think it is a matter for comment that a vessel on which you spent more than & 1000 could • only be insured for £400? : Witness: That was all we could got the insurance company to ..take. He said that the vessel had been • bought foj. £2OOO, and the cost of repairs car-, ricd out would be under £IOOO. Clnrl; was asked by counsel it. he knew whore Soores, the engineer and ,;art-ow»er of tl.o vessel, spent th. „i<rht in Westport. itiu-ss replied that lie only knew from hearsay. Co'in--scl stticr/elrat his instructions were that--Soares had na sloop tlio night the > oa t Vasiost. si nil" -us! .the boat arrived at-. West port in the 0.-irlv hours of that nwrnins, she. put to «ea with on-.; p'mecr ■ who had had practically no sleep for two nights. (