DANGEROUS CARGO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13861, 26 March 1907, Page 2

DANGEROUS CARGO.

THE DUTY OK THE MASTER. (Per Uk:teu Pkj.ss Assocmtion-.) AUCKLAND, jjarch_ 25. At tho Police Court to-day 'Edv.in Smith, master of the steamship Opawa, was lined £1 and costs for having failed to report to the collector of Customs on arrival,, as required by law, that he had on board 50 pa-ckaires of cyanide of potassium, and the position in which the packaged were stored. .Mr Mays, for the Crown prosecutor, stated that the cvanide of potassium was stowed in the vicinitv of quantities of foodstuffs. He had heard" that this kind of thing was going oil to a considerable extent. In the event of a cn?o being broken, »}*> fmiics might, prove very serious in their action. In the present ease, the poison was in zinclined eases, and no breakage had occurred. For the defence it wus explained that the. captain had no personal knowledge of the presence of nieh packages in the cargo. They were not distinctly marked, as they should 'nave been. The Magistrate held that, it was the captain's duly to ascertain what cargo was on hoard, and Co make himself conversant with the law. Future eases would be severely dealt with.