PLEA FOR CLEMENCY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 248, 19 October 1908, Page 7

PLEA FOR CLEMENCY.

THE PENGUIN-GERTIE COL-

LISION

DEPUTATION TO THE MINISTER

Recently the Marine Court of Inquiry after hearing evidence regarding the collision of the steamers Penguin and Gertie, near Jackson's Head, decided to suspend for three months the certificate of the Penguin's second officer, and ordered him to pay six guineas towards the cost of the inquiry. This judgment is considered harsh by seafaring men in Wellington, says Captain Watson, who headed a deputation representing the Merchant Service Guild to the Hon. J. A, Millar, Minister for Marine, on Thursday.

Captain Watson stated that section 238 of the Act provided that unless serious damage was done to a vessel an officer's certificate was not to be dealt with by the court. In the case under review the damages were very slight. In the Old Country it was usual to grant an officer a certificate of a lower grade in cases where his original certificate had been suspended. To emphasise the severity of the recent judgment he would like to point out that the master of the Star of Japan, which was stranded on the coast of South Africa and lost with

all her car^o, had his certificate susypended for only three months. He thought that in the Penguin case the most severe sentence of the court

should have been limited to censure ' of the officer. In the finding of the court the magistrate stated that he considered -the collision was due to the' starboarding' of. the Penguin -s helm. ■■'■There was no evidence, commented Captain Watson, to show that the helm had been starboarded, bub there was evidence stating that the damage might have been more serious if the Penguin's helm had not been put hard a-port. The evidence all through, was very conflicting. The Minister: "One cannot interfere with the court." He admitted that, by inference, according to one clause of section 238, the certificate was not supposed to go unless there was serious damage proved. The full report of the evidence had not reached him. The authorities could not be too cautious in these matters, he added There would be a "proper howl' on the part of the public if tnere was any attempt to scresn a num. Tie would say straightaway that he would not be a party to1 screening anybody in a case - where lire was at stake. Captain Watson: "We . consider the sentence unjust—too harsh." The Minister: "What would you suggest?" ( Captain Watson: "Censure and the payment of the court costs." Mr Millar promised to examine the complete, papers as soon as they reached him.—Post