WRECK ENQUIRY.

Colonist, Volume XLIX, Issue 11996, 24 July 1907, Page 3

WRECK ENQUIRY.

Auckland, July 22. The finding of the Court of Inquiry into the wreck of the Kia Ora was delivered this morning. Captain Blacklock is entirely exonerated, and the certificate of the second mate and the chief engineer are returned. The certificate of the chief mate (de Wolfe) has been forwarded to Wellington, the oouit finding that be was somewnajL intoxicated at the time of the wreck, but that the evidence was not sufficient to justify a finding as to r the • real cause of the disaster. The Northern Company and the chief mate of the Kia Ora were ordered to pay the costs of the enquiry. The Court expressed its highest appreciation of the services rendered by the settlers, and hoped same would be suitably recognised and rewarded. Great credit is considered due to Constable McCarthy and Mi Holmes for the part they took in assisting the settlers, and afterwards in searching for the bodies o( the drowned. The costs of the inquiry amount to two hundred pounds.