Stern Rebuke by Coroner

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 272, 20 November 1934, Page 7

Stern Rebuke by Coroner

Witness at Warehouse Fire Inquiry MANAGER CROSS-EXAMINED Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. "You have been hedging and hedging all the morning," declared the Coroner (Mr. E. D. Mosley) 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. 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 had arrived in the warehouse before the lire. Davidson was cross-oxamined concerning the stock sheets and an invoice referring to tea. He said that the tea was being delivered by a carter from bond to the warehouse. Other goods might have been added to A.B.C. stores, or any other order, and sent from the warehouse together with the 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, appearing for the Guardian Assurance Company: You havo 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 the 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 the tea was in bond. I 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 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 that you declared it to be true and correct, and now you say that it is not true. Davidson was in the box all day and his evidence is not yet completed. The inquiry was adjourned until November 26. Several witnesses have to be called by counsel for Davidson, but, as the Coroner said to-day, "this inquiry has to end some time."