FIRES ON WOOL SHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8182, 15 August 1906, Page 2

FIRES ON WOOL SHIPS.

EVIDENCE BEFORE ROYAL COMMISSION. Per Press Association. , Wellington, August 11. no Royal Commission Hot up to enquire into the Ca uaos of fires in "oo ' em P* and tow cargoes oil ' steamers sat to-day. Ore first witness called iv a ® S Burndge fellmanger, w }, 0 Sld( , , lew had thirty years' experience in the Wool trade, , Ho ascribed the recent fires among wool to tho fact that low qualities of wool has been and that it contained a. considerable quantity of vegetation. He had never seen good quality wool heated, but in low qualities insufficient care was taken before shipment. Alfred Tyrer, follmonger, said a good deal of the cause of Area was shipping wool in a wet season. Much of the wool got wot going from the railway station to the ship. The bales were then dried In the sun, but there to® no doubt that the wool in the interior of the bales heated. Ho did not think that wool would go into flames unless it was stowwl a , gainst flax or anything that would ignite., Lateb The Eoyal Commission set up to dis. cover the causes of firo on oversea vessels carrying cargoes of wool and day ° ommell bearing evidence to. Samuel Burridge, a fellmonger, of thirty years experience, said his conolu. sion was that fires on wool ships were caused in low quality wools; that was wool with a lot of vegetation in it, burrs, eto. That remark might also be applied to crutchings, for farmers as a rule were not so particular as to the-C state of the weather when theyorutched sheep, taking advantage of wet days. Exammation had shown that such wool ' had become heated. He had never seen good quality wool catch fire, The whole tendency was for fires to oocurin qualities, though he was not prepared to say whether that would be sufficient to cause firo. He tad known sheep driven into a stream and shorn . next day. Wool shipped under such ! conditions would, in his belief, have a : tendency to spontaneous oombustion. ' ? j 1 7 le J' a fellmonger, said that . a great deal of trouble was oaused in the [ vret season through wool and skins being . shipped in bad condition. He had had i wool from ships that had been on fire i and 'he wool had only scorched on the . outside, the inside of bales being quite : sonnd. The packs had been burnt ofE, I and fire had burnt a couple of inches . so into the bales. , Dilnot Sladden, manager of the Wei- , hngton Meat Export Company, stated that he had no particular views to 5 adyance on this subject, and therefore [ could not give any definite information. t He could only do what other people did—- . surmise, but he had been looking for in- . formation on the question himself and did , not know where to get it. With regard to slipe wool, his company had had only ; one bale sent back which was heated, 1 and it was immediately unpacked and cooled. A system of inspection to be of . any .valuo must be yery complete, bej cause it might bo not only days but - weeks before any heat was generated, t small number of fires that ocourred > in proportion to the large shipments of wool sent away, showed that it was only under extremely exceptional circum. stances that anything like spontaneous combustion had occurred, supposing it did take place, though it was impossible p to believe that there were not some wet fleeces put into a bale considering the great quantities of wool shipped.