ERROR OF JUDGMENT.

Wairarapa Age, 1 August 1936, Page 5

ERROR OF JUDGMENT.

FINDING ON WAHIN’E CRASH. NO ENDORSEMENT OF CAPTAIN’S CERTIFICATE. OBSERVATIONS BY PRESIDING MAGISTRATE. WELLINGTON, July 31. A decision that Captain B. B. Irwin Was guilty of an error of judgment was reached by the Court of Inquiry into the mishap to the inter-island steamer Wahine, which crashed into the Pipitea Wharf, on June 5. The Court returned the captain’s certificate unendorsed. Captain Irwin was found guilty of an error of judgment on two counts:— (1) In steering the course he did from the beam at Point Jerningham, which he did not see. (2) In approaching the wharves in such a fog at an excessive speed. Mr. E. D. Mosley S.M., who presided, said he agreed on every point with the nautical assessors. “At the sama time,” said Mr. Mosley, after giving the Court’s decision, “the assessors have requested me to say—and it coincides with my view and I Em sure with t«e view of all thinking people—that the captain, officers and crew are to be commended on the great promptitude with which they acted. I do not think that too much praise can he given the captain and his officers and men in that respect. It has been brought before my notice by the Crown on at least two occasions that the Union Steam Ship Company is in some way alleged to have given or to give its masters instructions, secret or otherwise, regarding their arrival at this port with punctuality, and it has been insinuated that some penalty would be entailed to them if they were not punctual. During the last two inquiries there has been not the slightest evidence to support that theory. The evidence has been entirely to the contrary and my two assessors, who have been experienced captains in the company, state that the idea is entirely erroneous, and they have requested me to emphasise the fact that no such action has been taken by the company any bee ” ln,rinuated by the comp-

The question of fog signals, which was almost apart from the inquiry, hod been discussed, Mr. Mosley said, by the assessors and would be the subject of (PA ) memoranduni to the Minuter