AN UNFORTUNATE PROTEST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20929, 20 January 1930, Page 6

AN UNFORTUNATE PROTEST.

The resolution passed by the Merchant Service Guild in Wellington respecting the appointment of assessors to assist the presiding magistrate in a Marine Court of Inquiry will possibly have caused some surprise. The Guild appears to be disposed to question the qualifications of the assessors who, with Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., composed the Court of Inquiry into (the circumstances surrounding the loss Sof the steamer Manuka. It makes sthe mistake, however, of stating its, and the protest cannot, in tview of the barrenness of the Guild’s Arguments, be regarded as otherwise tthan unfortunate and uncalled for. |The resolution follows the Guild’s exfpressions of sympathy, entirely natural Sin the circumstances, with Captain [Ross Clark, who was master of the ! Manuka. Sympathy with Captain Clark is entertained very widely outside the ranks of the merchant service and on the part of people who have every confidence in the composition of the Court of Inquiry. The suggestion made by the Merchant Service Guild that the assessors-in the Manuka inquiry should have been members of the profession actively engaged in maritime pursuits, and “more conversant with present-day conditions ” than the assessors who were selected, is open to an obvious objection. Mariners who are still actively engaged at sea would, if chosen as assessors, he asked to assist in the adjudication upon occurrences of which they may themselves conceivably have an experience. It is no reflection on the integrity of sea captains to remark that their sympathy with a fellow master might, in such circumstances, affect the impartiality of their judgment. Questions that suggest themselves are, What are the present-day conditions, with which a master lately retired from the sea could be said to be not conversant, and how would experience in the class of vessel and trade that is under discussion be of benefit to an assessor? The assessors are required to assist the presiding magistrate upon the technical questions that arise during the course of an inquiry, and the advice of men who, while they have retired from active life at sea, have the experience and technical knowledge that entitle their judgment to confidence, is quite as likely to be sound, and will certainly be more disinterested, than that of men still actively engaged in their profession, and, therefore, potentially liable to face a charge of negligent seamanship resulting in the total or partial loss of the vessels under their control. The difference between the practice of navigation to-day from the practice' of navigation when Captain Cook first visited these shores is that the mariner now has instruments, charts, and facilities for control of his vessel which earlier mariners lacked, and it seems absurd to suggest that expert mariners who have spent the greater part of their lives at sea are incompetent to pass judgment in a nautical matter simply because a few years may have passed since they last had charge of a ship.