SUPREME COURT

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 54, 1 February 1884, Page 3

SUPREME COURT

i Criminal Sittings. / Wednesday, January .30. (Before Mr Justice Richmond.) RESPONSIBIMTY OP A . HARBORMASTER. i Messrs Freejnan and Wylds, .sa_wniillers, Palmerston Worth, sued the Government for loss sustained in the wreck of the ketch Emerald with a cargo of timber, at Kaikoura, caused by the alleged negligence of the harbormaster, a servant of 'the Goveunraeiit. Th| aniount claimed for total loss of vessel 1 and cargo was £800. The vessel had been insured for £300 in the office of I the New Zealand Insurance Company, and, though the ship was afterwards taken over by the underwriters and put in .good ordor,the cargo being also realised , without great loss, the ownerfc brought this-action on their, own behalf, fdrfthe full value, by arrangement with the iunderwriters, leaving the amount to be assessed by the Court. The plaintiffs were represented by the I Hon. P. A. Buckley, with whom was Mr Devine, andjMrßell represented the Government. „ Numerous witnesses were called for the piaintitf?, to prove that the vessel was moored by the harbormaster's express direction, he being on the wharf giving orders ; that while altering tKe moorings to haul her nearer the wharf, as ordered; by him, a swell from a.breoze inline weather bumped the ship heavily; that she filled in a, few minutes and hjadto be hastily abandoned .; and that the harbormaster was either drunk or tbo much in liquor, and talked frivol-o-uslv. 1 For the defence, Mr Bell admitted tho vessel was moored by the harbormaster's orders, believing she was of light draught, but denied that the cjepth of draught was imported to him. E. G. T. Gooch, harbormaster, was Slled, and. appeared in Court ia a decidedly jovial condition, as if he' had been drinking that day. He admitted giving the directions to moor the vessel, and said he supposed she was light, and had no means of knowing the draught. Mr Bell then said he would not call more evidence, and the Comt would understand that he felt in a difficuly. ; ■ His Honor leserved judgment on the facts, till after the result of the appeal iin London, in the case of Williams v. ■ Regina, arrismg out of the sinking of the steamer Westport, could.be known |by cable message, expected during ! February. The questions of law rej mained to be argued before the Court in banco. . .