WAREHOUSE FIRE INQUIRY

Evening Star, Issue 21881, 19 November 1934, Page 12

WAREHOUSE FIRE INQUIRY

CORONER'S COMMENT TO WITNESS [Pek United Press Association.] ' CHRISTCHURCH, November 19. “ You . have been hedging and hedging all morning,” declared the coroner (Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M.) to William Davidson, manager of Davidson and Co. Ltd., when the warehouse fire inquiry was resumed this morning. Davidson at one stage said that there had been three • vinegar casks in the warehouse. -The Coroner: That’s one more than we’ve heard about. The witness at first said that it was hard to say whether one particular cask had ’ been brought to the warehouse before or after the fire. Later, in reply to the coroner, he said that it arrived in the warehouse before the fire. Davidson was cross-examined concerning stock sheets and an invoice referring to tea. Davidson said that the tea was being delivered by a carter from the bond to the warehouse. Other goods might have been added to -A, B, and C stores, or anv other order, and sent from the warehouse together with cheese.

The Coroner: That is rubbish, Mr Davidson. They were never taken into your warehouse. Don’t put rubbishy explanations before the coroner. Davidson added that the stock sheets did not include goods that were only in store; they included goods that were stored in bond or elsewhere, if paid for by the firm. Mr Thomas (for the Guardian Assurance Company) : You have sworn that is not so. You made a declaration stating that “No goods in bond or in transit were included.” The Coroner: That is perjury, is it not?

Davidson: As far as I am concerned I believe it to be in order. The Coroner: There is the declaration made by you on September 7 that all goods listed in the stock sheets were in stock in the warehouse. Witness; That was substantially correct. I have no recollection when I signed the document that tea was in bond. 1 signed it believing it to be, true.

The Coroner read a further sentence from the declaration that “ the firm’s stock books represented the net value of the stock in hand at the warehouse on February 28.” Witness: That document was drawn up by someone else. The Coroner: But it was signed by you as correct. The fact is you declared it to be true and correct, and now you say it is not true. The inquiry-is proceeding.