THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13523, 22 August 1907, Page 6

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

PUBLIC INQUIRY OPENS TO-DAY.

THE inquiry into the recent railway accident on the Rotorua line will be held before Mr. C. C. Kettle, S.M.. at the Police Court to-day. The proceedings will be conducted in public. Yesterday afternoon Mr. A. L. Beattie (chief -mechanical engineer), for the benefit of those, concerned, gave a demonstration of the Westinghouse brake in the railway goods yard, and with an ordinary mixed train of passenger and goods vehicles. There were present: Messrs. Kettle, Buxton (chief traffic manager), Prendergast (counsel for the Railway Department), F. Earl and F. E. Baume, K.C. (for the locomotive and traffic employees, instructed by the Amalgamated So-( ciety of Railway Servants), A. V. McDonald (district mechanical engineer), G. Bowles (foreman of the locomotive department), ""•vs. (brake engineer), Simpson (car inspec-~ .-- ~ and Robertson (representative of the Westing-house Brake Company in New Zealand). Drivers cooper and Taylor, who" were on duty on the train to which the accident happened, we're also present. Mr. Beattie gave most exhaustive tests of the. working of the brakes under, all conditions, with the engine detached from the train, and also when train and engine were, linked up. The mechanism of the Westinghous" brake was also explained, to the smallest detail. Mr. Kettle and the legal representatives of the parties asked a, large number of questions relating to the construction, action, maintenance, and efficiency of the brakes, all of which Mr. Beattie answered.

It was stated that the Department was anxious to afford every possible facility to the parties concerned to obtain all information about the brakes and their behaviour in varying circumstances. The demonstration occupied about two hour?. : PAY OF INJURED EMPLOYEES. [BY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington-, Wednesday. A question in regard to the Rotqrua railway accident which was put on the Order Paper by Mr. Greenslade was answered to-day by the, Premier. , The question was whether the Government intended to give the men injured in the accident full pay and hospital expenses, or only (he usual half-pay It was stated in a note to the question that in the case of Acting-Guard Dvvyer (whose widowed mother is dependent upon him) he was sent on temporary transfer for three months to Putaruru. This man has to maintain his mother in Auckland, and was really keeping two homes on slender pay when the accident occurred. The reply was,'as follows : —"Employees injured while on duty receive half-pay under the Workers' Compensation for Accidents Act. The Act docs not provide for any further payment. 1 will, however, be glad to give the question of hospital expenses further consideration when the matter, which is at present sub judiec, is finally settled."