Kia Ora Inquiry.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43114, 6 July 1907, Page 2

Kia Ora Inquiry.

CHARGES AGAINST CHIEF OFFICER

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This DayThe inquiry into the wreck of the steamer Kia Ora on June 13th was continued this afternoon before Mr C. C. Kettle, S.M., assisted by Captains John Grant and Schofield. Before the hearing of tho evidence was resumed Mr Mays (solicitor for the Marino Department) said the passenger witnesses complained of annoyance from the ship’s crew while sitting in the passages. He asked that they be allowed to use the Justice’s room downstairs. Mr Kettle : If there is any inteiferonce of that sort I wilt soon put a stop to it. Basil D. B. Hudson, a flax mill contractor at Raglan, and a passenger by tho Kia Ora, said that when at 9.40 Do Wolfe came to collect his ticket De Wolfe was under the influence of liquor, and witness remarked this to the other passengers. Witness went to sleep directly after, and did not wake till the ship struck. The weather was then clear. He swam from the ship to the boiff. He knew De Wolfe well, and was not mistaken as to his condition. In the boat De Wolfe more than once said, 1 I don’t know whore I am.’ When they got ashore Barraclough, Lush, Pratt, and witness set out to get assistance. Baggstrom and' De Wolfe had loft half-an- hour ahead. When about three miles on the journey they met the chief officer and Baggstrom. Two of us (said witness) had no boots at all, and one bad only one, and we were covered with' mud. Baggstrom said, “We have some very sad news to tell you. The Kia Ora is wrecked..” They did not recognise them. Everybody was left to shift for themselves. There was no discipline. Frank Fletcher Barraclough, a butcher, residing at Hawera, was a passenger from Waitara to Kawhia. He said that just before crossing the bar De Wolfe called him from the deck to the saloon, and asked for his ticket. De Wolfe was then drunk. Mr Mays: At what stage of drunkenness ? A muddled state. Could you detect liquor on him?—l could smell it. Was he or was he not fit to take charge of the ship?—He was not. Other passengers gave corroborative evidence. The crew’s view of tho case was given by Hugh Lister, second engineer, who said the chief officer had no liquor on board as far as he was aware. It was false that after landing the crew took possession of the shelter and left some of the women out in the rain.

David Forbos, A. 8., recalled, said when the vessel struck it was impossible to see anything for fog. There was no liquor among the crew. There was no truth in the statement that the men took shelter and left the women outside.