DISPUTE ABOUT CEMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14098, 15 April 1920, Page 4

DISPUTE ABOUT CEMENT.

BETWEEN PIPE CO. AND RAILWAY. -V. TWO TONS MISSING. ‘The Magistrate '& Court in Masterton was occupied, for some time' to-day in elucidating a dispute between the Masterton Cement Pipe Company (Mr, H. C. Robinson) and the Railway Department, concerning the loss of two tons of cement in April, 1919, which the plaintiffs alleged had been railed to them and which had not been delivered. The plaintiffs’ manager, in evidence, said that ten tons of cement had been railed from Wellington, but only eight tons were received in Masterton. He maintained that "they had only received four loads of cement, whereas they should have received five loads., Mr Burridge, for the Railway Department, said that the Department’s evidence, was that ten tons of Cement had been received from Munt, CottrilL and Co. in Wellington for the Cemtnt Pipe Company, and had been railed to Masterton. The Magistrate said it seemed to him that the Pipe Company did not dispute that ten tons may have been loaded in Wellington, but they said they onlv received eight tons from the tru.’-k ill Masterton. It was a wellknown fact, despite flip fact Efiat the truck may be carefully sheeted, “thie- i vos break through and steal." It seemed to him that the only question was: “Did ten tons of cement arrive in Masterton, and was ten tons removed by the Cement Pipe Co.?” Munt, Cot trill had given the Department ten tons of cement, and the onus was upon the railway officials to show what had become of it. If the Railway Department could not prove that ten tons were taken from the truck in MastoriSn, then they must fail, as the plaintics had produced affirmative evidence that only eight tons had* been taken from the truck in Masterton; , Mr Burridge said that the whole of the facts had gone before the Solici-tor-General, who had instructed him to proceed. He; then proceeded to call the -evidence off the railway officials who had been connected with the transit of the cement. (Proceeding.)