WELLINGTON. May 1.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2183, 2 May 1879, Page 2

WELLINGTON. May 1.

The Putt to-night in an article, quote* the Auckland Star's remarks about the Taupo enquiry, and says : "We hare now had an opportunity of inrestigating the circumstanoes of the oase, and the evidence given "The result is the allegations above quoted, are borne out only in one particular — the fact that the buoy had shifted ; but the assertion, Ist, that this had been reported to th« Government, and, 2nd, that the wreck of the Taupo wm in any way attributed to the bouys having »Wtea, are said to be totally groundless. In the first place, the most diligent and careful search has failed to discover any record of such report having been made at all, and circumstantial fffidenoe points very strongly to the improbability that it ever was made. Caitainly it never was the depth. Secondly it is proved in the clearest way on the evidence of the captain and officers of the Taupo themselves, that the mishap was not caused directly or indirectly by the shifting of the buoy. Captain Cromarty himself attributed the disaster to the water being shallower than it was marked on the chart. Here, however, comes in the explanation of the whole affair, and the reason why the Court pronounced the captain guilty of negligence. Captain Cromarty deemed the water shallower than was on the chart, because accardin to his own statement, he calculated his vessel's distance a cable's length from the shore, and relied on finding the depth of water given by the chart, as existing a cable's length from the shore. Hod that besn his real distance his ship would have been afloat now, but a careful measurement of the distance from the shore to the spot where the Taupo str jck, shows it to be only half that distai ce — half a cable's length, instead of a cal les length. That unfortunate miscalculation made all the difference betwuen safety and shipwreck. The evidence fuitlier showed that the steamer had been allowed to drift in-shore through her spt eed being kept to slow to overcome mt sideway set of the strong tide. The comparison of the statement made by the captain, officers, and steersman, as to the bearing of the beacons as they were passing along the channel, proves this indisputably, and shows that this lamentable difl-ister was justly attributed by the Co irt, on the opinion of the Nautical Assessor, to the miscalculation of distance above complained. An inquest was held yesterday at Tenui into the cause of the fire which resul tad in the destruction of Mr Wellar's Te.iui Hotel, but there was no evidence to thow how the fire originated. A ver- ' dick was given to that effect. When the Stella was coming up from the South on Tuesday she passed a large sh( al of whales, about 100 in all, between Mi eraki and Banks Peninsula. Many of them came quite close to the sUamer. A lar^e number of sharks were also seen. At the Resftfent Magistrate's Court this morning the Hon. Mr Buckey stated that he had been engaged to defend Mr W. Kinross, of Napier, who had been remanded to Wellington on a oharg* of perjury, and he wished to know when Mr Mansfield would hear the oase. Mr Mansfiell said ha had no knowledge of the cas », except that he had received a letter fro n Napier informing him that Mr Kinross' oase was to be heard in Wellington, He could not understand how the case came to Wellington. Mr Buokley said he would have some remarks to make on the subject hereafter, and pointed out to His Worship, by the 7th section of the Resident Magistrates' Act that a l?«sident Magistrate had no jurisdiction outside his own district. His Worship said he certainly could not hear the oase to-day, because there were already a large number of cases set down fur hearing, and he did not see that ha oould conveniently hear it before Tuesday next A large number of people were in attendance, expecting that the case would be called on. It is understood that there are over 20 Maori witnesses to be examined.