FIRE INQUIRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26747, 16 April 1948, Page 6

FIRE INQUIRY

LAST CROWN WITNESS HEARD ELECTRICAL SUPPLY JOINTS P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, Apl. 15. The last of 137 witnesses called by the Crown counsel was heard this afternoon by the Royal Commission inquiring into Ballantyne’s fire on November 18, when 41 lives were lost. Mr G. G. G. Watson (Crown counsel) said that an exception was the evidence on the joints in the conductor for the main electrical supply. “We are unable to get evidence yet as to who made the joints,” he said. Counsel representing Ballantyne’s,' the Municipal Electricity Department, and Thompson and Dorreen, Ltd., have informed us that their clients know nothing about the joints being made and we have handed the matter to the detective branch for the usual inquiries.” When the commission resumes tomorrow, Mr T. P. Cleary (counsel for Ballantyne’s) will make his opening address, and he intimated to-day that the evidence he proposed to call would occupy the greater part of next week. When recalled by the Crown to-day, Stuart Maxton Nicol, testing engineer of the State Hydro .Department at Christchurch, said that a closer examination of the conductor for the main electrical supply showed that two joints were more defective than he had thought when he gave evidence last week Questioned by Mr B. A. Barrer (for three unions), Nicol said: “It is very difficult to believe that the joints were made by an electrician, but I still believe they were because I can’t imagine any other tradesmen being brave enough to do the work in Colombo street. I don’t like to think it was an electrician.” , , There was no evidence of undue heating in the joints caused by the normal passage of the current, witness told Mr E. S. Bowie (counsel for Thompson and Dorreen, the electrical contractors). Evidence of the police investigations was given by Detective Sergeant George Walter Alty, who was in charge of the inquiries. He said that of 458 members of Ballantyne s staff, more than 350 had been interviewed and had given statements. Most were interviewed within a fortnight of the fire In addition, many members of the public had been interviewed. “In my inquiries I was unable to discover evidence that would tend to show that the fire was caused by a criminal act on the part of any person or by the neglect of anyone to perform any legal duty,” the detective said.