A NAUTICAL CASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 32, 7 August 1905, Page 5

A NAUTICAL CASE.

SUBSTANTIAL FINE IMPOSED.' A SERIOUS OFFENCE. Judgment was delivered by Dr. A. M'Arthur, S.M., this morning in the case in which the Superintendent of Mercantile Marine, Wellington, recently proceeded against Captain Smith, master of the barquentme .Onyx, on a charge of having proceeded m the vessel from Wellington to Adelaide last April without a certificated second mate. His Worship in the course of his julgment said the fact was admitted. He reviewed the law points raised by counsel, and said he was unable to agree with ■ counsel . that because subsection 1 and certain other paragraphs, referred to tho mustei that therefore the owner was the person who was. solely responsible foi tho provision of officers. In his Worship's opinion, wnen once the master was appointed he was responsible for providing b full complement of officers and men according to the statute before proceeding on a voyage. The ownei was also, he took _ it, responsible, but the master was primarily so, and his Worship thought this was absolutely borne out by sections 44, 45, and 46, quoted for the defence as being specific cases only. It was submitted on behalf of the defendant that no offence was committed, and if an offence was committed the responsibility for Bucn offence must bo oh the owner, and not on the master. His Worship cited authority, and held that the defendant was guilty of an offence under section 21. The offence tvas a serious one, and was not, in his Worship's opinion, committed inadvertently, but after due warning. The defendant would bo fined £20, with £3 10s costs. Mr. Myers prosecuted, and Mr. D. M ITindlay defended.