TURAKINA FIRE ENQUIRY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11107, 23 October 1907, Page 4

TURAKINA FIRE ENQUIRY.

■ ALLEGED SHIPMENT OF WET ;;-.-• ; 2 FLAX V

(Per Press Association. V WELLINGTON, this day. '■■; At the inquiry2 into the circumstances of the' fire on. ithe steamer Tua'akiha,- Geo. Scotcher, superintendent* of, salvage^operations on the flax at Miramar, stated;that it. "was' impossible to distinguish marks and brands- in stuff that had come under his care, they haying been obliterated by fire and; water.;' ;.The. flak was ih a very' bad condition,; not properly stripped, washed^, bleached,; or scutched. . Fully five hundred; bales 2were irt; wretched order, and Should have been rejected as unfit for shijpment: : _ Flax of . this .kind was very dangerous if 'riot ! property V washed and scutched. None of the .bales were burnt right throu'elij and the burning was on the outside. They were in a frightful , state, and very hot inside. Some of the lumps of tow were full of waste. \Mr T. Bourke said that- some of -.the i wool sent to, Kilbirnie was burnt from the outside. He was of opinion that* the tow was .packed wet. He had known a bale to heat in a week's time. . He did not think tow would have ignited by itself, but; placed alongside kauri guni and such substances it would '■ be liard' to say wnat would happen. W.TL Ferris, Government hemp grader, said.sqmeof the stuff undergoing, recondi tidn ing would have been ephdemriedby, liim, but to base the shipment on* the piece produced would not be fair. Bales could be Condemned, but, so long as tliey were ( dry no steps would be taken to prevent their .export. Mr Maclaurin, Government analyist, thought it; wuuld be almost impossible for flax properly dressed to become ignited by overheating, but in case of badlyo^res^ed'llax, "more likely specimens;- such as were produced, Would, he considered, en^nce the possibility of fire. V