NAUTICAL INQUIRY.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12769, 10 February 1910, Page 3

NAUTICAL INQUIRY.

STRANDING OF* THE KAIPARA. [United Pbkbs Association.] • AiiDklamt, Feb 9. The inquiry into the. stranding of the steamer Kaipara concluded to-day. Mr Cotter, counsel for "Captain Cornwall, in addressing the Court, said that the evidence showed that the Auckland harbour, which had always been considerede one of the safest in the world, had contained a hidden danger in the nature of an uncharted shoal in the fairway, | The evidence brought, forward to this effect' removed all possible responsibility for what happened from the shoulders of -Captain Cornwall. There was 'no ground for -believing that the Kaijiara had. been in any wav injured at tho wharf. The suggestion that the list had contributed to the accident had, he said, been practically abandoned, - since there was not a . single witness who had gone into the box and said that the list had anything to do with the casualty. In conclusion he strongly condemned the official chart, which had proved entirely misleading, and a grave source of danger to navigators. The Court reserved its decision till Saturday.