THE VESTRIS INQUIRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20343, 26 August 1929, Page 14

THE VESTRIS INQUIRY.

COSTS FULL V £30,000. LARGEST SINCE TITANIC. Ifc is estimated that the Board of Trado inquiry into the loss of the Lamport and Holt liner Vestris with 112 lives last November will have cost altogether £30,000. Sir Thomas Inskip, K.C., leading counsel for tho Board of Trade, said it. was the longest inquiry ever held under the Merchant Shipping Act. It had lasted 40 days, which was three days longer than tho Titanic inquiry. Mr. W. N. Raeburn. K.C., also for the Board of Trade, said that tho inquiry had cost tho Board of Trado, and therefore the country, £14,554 3s. That included the cost of obtaining ship's witnesses, but it did not include anything for tho services of tho Board of Trado officials, nor tho costs of tho Board of Trado solicitors in preparing the case. Neither did it include the costs of the owners of tho ship or their New York agents. A high official connected with the inquiry said to a Daily Mail reporter: "This must be tho most costly Board of Trade inquiry ever held. i should say that tho total costs will be about £30,000. Counsels' fees and the Court fees will amount to somewhere in, the neighbourhood of £15.000; and the bulk of the other £15,000 will bo accounted for by tho great cost of bringing about 50, witnesses to this country from the United States. Many members of the crew were kept hero for two or three months, and hail to bo maintained."