Certificates Returned.

Manawatu Herald, Volume 1, Issue 26, 22 November 1878, Page 2

Certificates Returned.

Welusotox, Thursday, 7 p.m. The Basident Magistrate in delivering judgment in the case of the wr.«k of tho City of Auckland, after quoting clauses of tho Act under which the enquiry was held, stated that as the assessors appointed to enquire into the caso with him, were not agreed, it devolved upou him to give an iudapondent judgment. He having carefully gone over tho evidence taken, and considered the entries in officers' and ship's logs, and conferred with assessors, was of opinion that the lojs of the City of Auek'aad was caused by tho master having laid off the position of his ship iucorrectly on the chart. Such error having arisen through his haviug inadvertently pricked his distance from longitude instead of latitude, thus making a variance of 11 or 15 mile?, and haviug overrun his distance through not knowing what rate tho vessel wii* going, probably arisiug from imperfect or incorrect information on Admiralty charts, thereby causing him to mistake K-ipiti for Stephen's Island, ha was further of opinion that, assuming the master lo have been where ho thought he was, at th<* time ho in irked the false position on churl, his coures Were right, and tha same an thoso used by a majo. ity of the master* coming througu the straits. He considered ''he master culpable iv noc using tho deep sea lead, though at tho same tiino from sound* ings on chart, the .sumo depth would have bdcji found in both true and false positions ' aud the fant of sounding would not {tare shown in a certain manner, his actual position. Such errors would be considered serious in tho Ko.jal Aavy, und could hardly havo happened but in the merchuut Burvice. A practice almost amounting to a custom exists for musters lo work out their own observations without cousultu* tion with their ofli .-its. He considered tliis practice very reprehensible, but it would not bo fair to punish a master fop doing tiiat which in done by nearly every muuter iv tho service. Taking into consideration the confidence placed in him by the owners, the implicit reliance by the officers, aud his praiseworthy and euergetio conduct in successfully lauding all thu passengers aud cicw without loss of lite, 1 am not prepared to say he has acted in Mich a culpable manner as to justify the suspension of hi* otrtiiioato. Judgment, in baa d upou less stringent rules regulating merchant service rather than the more severe code of Itoyul Mavy. The decision is influenced by the Assessor representing merchant

pei vie ■. rather tlum tlio other Ask'ssi.v r< :- : pi«-: ontltiu* Uoytil Navy, N« tli;ii<.' in thr ! conduct of tithir of the offii: rs of the shij ! i-pqiiiivd the slight Ht oeiiMiro. All th< ccTtifim'ei arj ro'.u n.'d. Immigrant 3 fo W.nguu. 2i>o immigrants comin»- to N-.lso', will bo lrnn*for:-ftl to , The La d Tax. tJuWir., of k!io Treasury, has h- n appointerl Assis!arit-<'ontiollci' ::jid Auilitor, "while Wavin taken LJulkin's place tis <».c-----countant of the Treasury. Jleywood is made uccountaut under tho Land lax Department, of which Sperry is tho Chief Commissioner. M'Lean, the Provincial Auditor, is appointed to thu sub-commiH-sionership of Auckland. Watson, the Government auctioneer, has been appointed to sub'commiHsionership of Otago. Munkay, commissioner of native reserves, has been appointed suVcomniisaioner at Nelson. The valuation under tho L:md 'lax will begin early in December, and it is under* Ntood it will be ready for enforcement in January.