WHY NO INQUIRY?

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11254, 5 July 1922, Page 2

WHY NO INQUIRY?

WAHIN® and harbour board TUG. COLLISION OCCASIONS DAMAGE. Mr J. McCombs (Lyttelton) gave notice in Parliament yesterday to ask the Min-, ister for Marine, why no inquiry was held into the collision between the ferry steamer Waihine and the Harbour Board’s tug Lyttelton? '"‘One report states,” said Mr McCombs, "that the tug was towing the C. and D. liner Port Darwin (10,365 tons). The Wahine struck the tug on the counter, on the starboard side. The force of the impact caused the tug to heel over until she was almost on fher beam ends, with her port rail under water. When the vessels drew apart it was found that the sharp stem of the Wahine had cut into the stern of the tug for a depth of nearly Sft. The lOin by 12in hardwood belting, armoured with an additional belt of lin iron, with which the tug is protected all round, was cut clean through, and the s'feel plates of the hull were also first pushed in and then cut, while some of tlip deck planks were started. It might be said that the Wahine, being a mailboat, the tug should have given way. This rule, however, only applies other things being equal A steamer with another in tow has the right of way. On one occasion the little steamer John Anderson (52 tons) humped into the Defence launch in the inner harbour. No damage done. An inquiry* was ordered. On another occasion the John Anderson and another small steamer, the Turau, bumped. Damage, a broken rail. An inquiry ordered, and the captains ordered to pay costs.”'