SULPHURIC ACID EXPLOSION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 102, 23 January 1918, Page 4

SULPHURIC ACID EXPLOSION

CLAIMS FOR DAMAGES. Claims for damages totalling £8000, arising out of the sulphuric acid explosion at Auckland on the steamer Monowai on September 7, 1916, are to be heard at Melbourne shortly. Tho plaintiffs will be the waterside workers, who, it i 3 alleged, sustained serious and permanent injuries by contact with acid, and the defendants, Wischer Proprietary, Limited, by whom the drums were filled for the shippers. Messrs. Eosenham and Company, of Melbourne. The actions are founded on the alleged negligence of tho defendants in placing a rubber stopper in the orifice of tho drum, from which the acid escaped, instead of securing it with an iron 6crew-cap. A commission was issued by the Supreme Court of Victoria, empowering the Registrar of the Supreme Court at Auckland to examine witnesses. Several witnesses were examined before the Christmas vacation, and the commissioner resumed the inquiry on Monday last. Mr. P. J. O'Regan appeared for the plaintiffs, and Mr. J. R-. Reed, K.C., for Wischer Proprietary, Limited. Mr. Cotes, of Melborne, solicitor, was also in attend* ance on behalf of the defendant company. The taking of evidence occupied a week, and altogether 25 witnesses were called for the plaintiffs. On Saturday last the hearing was adjourned sine die, but only two or three witnesses remain to he examined., Their evidenco will bo taken shortly, and the commission is resumable at Melbourne <n February 11. Several of the plaintiffs will go to Melbourne, and their evidence will be given there.

The several actions have been consolidated, and the hearing will take place in March.