CORONER DISSATISFIED

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1934, Page 9

CORONER DISSATISFIED

WAREHOUSE FIRE INQUIRY CORONER SUGGESTS HEDGING. EXAMINATION OF W. DAVIDSON. EXPLANATIONS NOT BELIEVED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. “.You have been hedging and hedging all the morning,” declared the coroner, Mr. E. D. Mosley, to William Davidson, manager of Davidson and Company, Ltd., when the warehouse fire inquiry was resumed this morning. Davidson was in the box all day and his evidence was not completed. The inquiry was adjourned until November -26. Several witnesses have to be called by counsel for Davidson, but the coroner said today, “This inquiry has to end some time.” Davidson at one stage said there had been three vinegar casks in the warehouse. The coroner: That is one more than we have heard about. Davidson at first said it was hard to say whether one particular cask had been brought to the warehouse before or after the fire. Later, in reply to the coroner, he said it arrived in the warehouse before the fire. . Davidson was cross-examined concerning the stock sheets and invoice. Referring to tea, Davidson said tea was being delivered by a carter from bond to the warehouse. Other goods might have been added to the A.B.C. Stores or any other order and sent from the warehouse, together with cheese. The coroner: That is rubbish, Mr. Davidson. They were never taken into your warehouse. Don’t put rubbishy explanations before a coroner. Davidson added that the stock sheets did not include goods that were only in store. They included goods that were stored in bond or elsewhere if paid for by the firm. Mr. Thomas (for the Guardian Insurance Company): You have sworn that is not so. You made a declaration stating that “no goods in bond or in transit were included.” The coroner: That is perjury, is it not? Davidson: As far as I am concerned I believe it to be in order. The coroner: There is the declaration made by you on September 7 that all goods listed in the stock sheets were in stock in the warehouse. Davidson: That was substantially correct. I have no recollection when . I signed the document that the tea was in bond. I signed it believing it to be true. The coroner read a further sentence from the declaration that “the firm’s books represented a net value of stock in hand at the warehouse on February 28.” Davidson: That'document was drawn up by someone else. The coroner: But it was signed by you as correct. The fact is you declared it to be true and correct, and now you say that it is not true.