Tahiti Pilot Defended

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 245, 6 January 1928, Page 1

Tahiti Pilot Defended

STRONG ALLEGATIONS BY COUNSEL GREYCLIFFE DISASTER By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. SYDNEY, Thursday. Strong allegations were made when the inquiry into the Greye'iffe disaster was continued today. Mr. Evans counsel for the pilot of the Tahiti, Captain Carson, in an address to the Court, said that because the rules of navigation were being broken by the Sydney ferry boats every day. the public was exposed to serious risks. • Mr. Evans strongly condemned the construction of the ferry boats, and said it was impossible for the captains of them to maintain a proper lookout. He added that during the inquiry Captain Carson’s reputation had been grossly defamed. The case, he said, had been overloaded with prejudice from the start. Everybody had been assuming that the speed of the Tahiti was excessive. “So much was this so,” said Mr. Evans, “that the propaganda that has been disseminat«*d is extraordinarily difficult to counteract. In fact it has reached throughout the world. • It is ridiculous to suppose that Captain Carson, aided and abetted by Captain Aldwell. of the Tahiti, would be guilty of deliberately running down a ship.”

The fact was, asserted Mr. Evans, that the ferry boat had changed course and that was supported by nil the exact evidence that had been given in the case. It was the defective equipment of the Greycliffe that v:as at fault. —A. and N.Z.