Petty Officer Acquitted

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 46

Petty Officer Acquitted

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, July 4.

A naval court martial in Auckland today acquitted a petty officer mechanic of a charge of damaging a boiler in the frigate, H.M.N.Z.S. Taranaki, through negligent performance of duty.

The Court had on Thursday also acquitted the defendant. Petty Officer Engineering Mechanic Barry Tukanakore Ngawhika, on another charge relating to the same boiler failure in the Taranaki on March 16.

A consulting engineer in evidence today suggested that the boiler failure cpuld have been caused by circumstances beyond the control of a boiler operator. The witness, Mr J. AllsoppSmith, said that a vapour lock or exceptional turbulence in the boiler tubes could have led to damage and failure. These conditions could have existed despite the boiler’s water gauges showing a normal level.

Mr AUsopp-Smith, who said that he had worked for a well-known manufacturer of naval marine boilers for 22 years, told the Court that he had personal experience of three boilers failing because of the conditions he had described. That type of failure could certainly occur again. “I could myself reproduce this condition," said the witness. Mr Allsopp-Smith said that, in his opinion, Petty Officer Ngawhika would have been wrong to add water to the boiler after ascertaining that the water gauges showed a normal half level. The gauge was the operator's only means of checking water level. The defendant was charged specifically with having failed to ensure that sufficient water was fed to the boiler. For the prosecution, Mr H. R. H. Paul said in his closing submission that the Court had to consider whether the alternative explanation offered by the defence for the boiler failure really cast reasonable doubt on the allegation of neglected duty.

In his closing address for the defence, Mr L. W. Brown, Q.C., said that the circumstantial evidence which he had produced was in no way inferior to direct evidence in such circumstances. The prosecution had failed to prove that the defendant had neglected his duty. After adjourning for 25 , minutes, the Court, presided over by Captain F. Hardman, ; returned a verdict of not , guilty-