POLLUTING HARBOUR.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18541, 11 April 1930, Page 5

POLLUTING HARBOUR.

STIFF FINE FOR TANKER'S j CAPTAIN. By Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND. April 10. i After counsel for the Auckland Harbour Board had stated that the case was a particularly bad one. a fine of £IOO was imposed by Mr F. K. Hunt. S.M.. in the Police Court, on G. Thorsen, master of the oil tanker Acasta. who admitted a charge of allowing the discharge or escape of , oil into the harbour. The prosecution was brought by the harbourmaster (Captain Sergeant), i under the Oil in Territorial Waters Act. 1925. | Mr Gray, for the Harbour Board, j stated that on Wednesday evening the attention of a Harbour Board official had been drawn to a quantity of oil j which had escaped from the Acasta 1 at the western wharf. The harbourmaster, who was informed, went with witnesses to the vessel, and found that the gangway had been drawn up, preventing anybody going on board. When they managed to get on the ship they found that the deck on the port ude, from the bridge aft. was covered ; with oil which had escaped from the scuppers and was floating in large : patches under the wharf. Mr Weir, representing Captain Thorsen, said there must have been : an airlock in the pipeline, allowing ; the oil to come out of the hole used for sounding. As soon as the escape of oil was discovered the oil was turned off at the valves. “The maximum fine for this offence | is £SOO. That is what the Legislature thinks of it,” said the Magistrate. “I will fine this man £IOO, one-fifth of the maximum.”