IS FLAX A DANGEROUS CARGO?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 563, 10 March 1870, Page 3

IS FLAX A DANGEROUS CARGO?

As an appropriate supplement to our article of yesterday, we- publish the following, from our files of the Sydney Morning; Herald, received by the Rangitoto. The remarks are "communicated" to the Herald under the signature " W. J.," and the writer, it appears, has been a wool-stapler. We specially direct attention to the concluding paragraph : — The recent inquest relative to the origin of the late fire at the Blackwall Stores was instituted at the instance of the Insurance Companies interested ; and they were actuated solely by the hope that something might turn up in the course of the inquisition that would be worth knowing. They were in possession of no one fact of a criminal aspect ; they had no suspicions either to confirm or to remove, but, on the contrary, they commenced the inquiry with a carte blanche, and, notwithstanding the verdict of the jury (to which I intend presently to pay my respects), they left off business as they began, without the slightest increment to their assets.

I am aware that as a rule the verdicts of coroner's juries are not amenable to criticism; but the importance of the interests at stake will, I trust, in this instance, permit a departure from the rule. It will be my business to show that during the whole inquiry there was not the slightest evidence to justify the conclusion that the fire was the result of spontaneous combustion ; and although the verdict of the jury affirms it still this selfsame verdict is pregnant with proof of an opposite tendency. , The jury find " that the fire originated in the second floor of store No. 1 south through spontaneous combustion ; but that whether it originated in the flax or the wool they had no evidence to show." In other words, the jury admit their ignorance as to the whereabouts of the commencement of the fire. But unless they are aware of all the circumstances connected with the outburst of the fire, how can they venture to determine whether it is spontaneous or not. The commencement of the combustion alone comprises the datum from which spontaneous combustion nan be inferred ; and of the commencement of the fire, the jury, according to their own showing, know nothing. They cannot say whether the fire commenced with the wool or the flax, whether it was inside the bale or outside, whether it was the result of a oiy and quiet smoke (and the roost expensive fire that ever occu red in these colonies owes its parentage to a cabinetmaker's pipe), or whether it originated with some half-burnt match recklessly thrown away to mature quietly into disastrous conflagration. They know nothing of all this ; but this, nevertheless, they do know, namely, that it was through spontaneous combustion.

With regard to the evidence submitted to the jury, that given by Mr Norrie, analytical chemist, is, in my opinion, whatever that may be worth, about as objectionable as the verdict itself. It may be that both flax and wool are liable to spontaneous combustion. Mr Norrie maintains that they are; but I contend that he offered no evidence whatever to show that the fire at the Blackwall stores was spontaneous. Had (he bale of fl«x that

was opened for him indicated central combu»tion, this would have been something like evidence; but thefl >x took it very coolly and had no evidence of the sort to offer. But if Mr Korrie had no evidence to offer he at least had a theory, and this taught the possibility of spontaneous combustion under certain circumstances. In the absence of everything like evidence, the jury had, unfortunately, accorded to theory the honour that alone was due to evidtnee. *Mr Norrie had asserted that spontaneous combustion was pcssible, and the jury at once converted the possible into the actual, without rhyme or reas n, or the slightest particle of evidence to warrant any such conclusion.

So long ago hs 153.1 the firm of J. Burrow, Montefiore, and Co., of Sydney, were in possession of land at Poverty Bay, New Zealand, the same having been conveyed to Mr Montefiore by tiie native chiefs on the spot. This station was principally used for the collection and preparation of flax for shipment to Sydney, and whenever a cargo was ready a. ship was dispatched from this port to convey it hither. The appliances for pressing were so imperfect on the station that forty toas were .imj-.10 to fill a vessel of three times that tonnage, and on nrrival in Sydney the flax was landed and pressed over again for the Londoa market. This trade lasted for- years to my (intimate knowledge, without engendering the slightest suspicion of- the liability of the coumodity to spontaneous combustion. I am, therefore, not quite so ready to subscribe to Mr Nome's theory as 6ome people are, and more particularly when, as- in this case, there is no evidence whatever in support of it.