The Wairarapa Collision.

Manawatu Times, Volume X, Issue 1189, 1 March 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Collision.

Per Press Association. Dunedin, Feb. 28. The inquiry re the Wairarapa collision was continued to-day, when the principal witness was Mr A. Hill Jack, manager of the National Insurance Company, who was a passenger. He said the "Wairarapa appeared to be going at ordinary full speed, and he continued — "I was sitting m the music room, when a talking and shouting of passengers : on deck caused me to step outside, when I discovered a steamer nearly abreast of it, on the port side, and the passengers on both steamers were very much excited. The stea« mers were near enough for the passengers of each vessel to hear wßat was said. The steamers approached one another several times quite closely, and, I noticed that flames -were coming out of the funnel of the; Adelaide. I judged by the smoke that our steamer was also coaling up, but there was no flame from the funnel, and when the collision took place I at first thought there had been an explosion. I heard nothing about a race being intended to take place between the steamers." The Collector of Customs said the evidence would be forwarded to the Marine Department at Wellington. Captain Chatfield remarked that he did not see the object of the inquiry, as the matter would have to be gone into at Melbourne. Captain Thomson then pointed out that ' the law required that a .preliminary inquiry should take plaoe at the first' port at which a vessel arrived after an accident.