H.—29

IX

with the shipping people, has come out of the above-recorded events with a clean sheet. In no case has any sign of spontaneous combustion been discovered in a bale of hemp." Among cases of actual fire which have taken place in cargoes of flax, the '' Leading Wind " fire brought forth a controversy as to the possibility of spontaneous combustion arising in such cargo, and an extract from the Australasian Banking and Insurance Record on the subject may be referred to (Exhibit No. 15, pp. xxix, xxx). The following may be quoted from the article : "If conjecture is allowable upon such a matter which is at present shrouded in mystery, it seems more rational to suspect some of the more common causes of fire than to set up a theory of spontaneous combustion with respect to a material which has been stored and shipped for the past fifty years without producing a single authenticated case." Direct testimony bearing on this subject may be found in the evidence of Messrs. Scales (pp. 14 and 18), Chaytor (p. 67), Mardon (p. 67), Wakely (p. 68), Coley (p. 69), and Seiffert (p. 70). In the course of his evidence before the Select Committee of the Legislative Council inquiring into the subject of shipping wet wool, Mr. William Ferguson, Secretary to the Wellington Harbour Board, said (Exhibit No. 1, p. x), " I made an experiment with a bale of rejected flax. It was slightly heated when I got it. I put it into an iron tank and put it away in a warm place, closing out the air to see whether it would generate sufficient heat to burst into flame. It simply rotted. The conditions were somewhat the same as on shipboard. There is no risk of sudden fire from damp flax." In view of all the circumstances, your Commissioners are of opinion that the probability of flax or tow having through spontaneous combustion been the cause of any of the fires which have occurred upon vessels leaving New Zealand with such cargo on board is negatived, although on occasions there have been suspicions. The highly inflammable nature of flax or tow renders it exceedingly liable to fire from extraneous causes, and that liability is increased if by any means there is a mixture of oil with the flax or tow. The question of covering tow for shipment has been prominent throughout this investigation, and the evidence as to the utility of the practice is somewhat conflicting. It has been contended on the one hand that covering tow with jute hessian minimised the possibility of fire from extraneous causes, while on the other hand evidence has gone to show that as jute hessian in itself is of an inflammable nature, the utility of such covering is doubtful. At some of the ports of the colony the practice of covering tow with jute hessian prevails, while at other ports it is shipped without covering of any kind. In our opinion it would be an advantage if bales of flax or tow were covered, and we are also of opinion that tow should be inspected. Wool. We now turn to the possibility of wool in its many qualities and conditions as being the cause of fires by reason of spontaneous combustion. The wool is a fatty material, and contains among its constituents oleic acid, which oxygen. In a properly packed and stored bale of wool this action nearly always takes place, and is accompanied by a slight increase in weight and by the generation of a small amount of heat. This heat is nearly always concentrated near the centre of the bale, as it is here that the air has practically no access, and the non-conducting properties of the wool store up the heat. If the wool is moist, the increase of heat in the centre of the bale becomes excessive, Where large numbers of bales are stored in the hold of a ship, it is well recognised that such moisture will cause damage to the wool, even though not resulting in a temperature approaching ignition. From a review of all the circumstances—the reports of investigations, the opinions of scientists, and the evidence which has been before your Commissioners—there is no room to doubt that spontaneous combustion does take place in wool. Numerous instances might be quoted where the interior of bales of wool has been actually on fire after being exposed to the atmosphere. " Greasy Wool." —The evidence as to the possibility of even burning greasy wool by the application of extraneous fire has been most conflicting, and, taking the evidence of those who have spent almost a lifetime in the wool trade, the weight of evidence is against the theory of spontaneous ignition of greasy wool. The absence of evidence, however, does not negative the theory, and, given the necessary