ALLEGED "DUMMY" CAPTAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1919, Page 5

ALLEGED "DUMMY" CAPTAIN.

* INFORMATION DISMISSED. Auckland, Sept. 5. Judgment in the case in which the Parker-Lamb Timber Company, Ltd- was charged mith having employed EdVpard Donovan, a certified master, as a "dummy" on the ahip Akaroa fof the purpose of enabling the ship to clear on July 17, and not for the purpose of the whole voyage, was given by Mr. Wilson, S.M., in the Police Court. The charge was laid by Captain Fleming, Superintendent of Marine. The prosecution alleged that Peter Petersen, an expert rafter, who for certain reasons signed on as a boy, was intended to manage the vessel after she had left port. "The evidence," said Mr. Wilson, "raises a very strong suggestion that so far as the appearances went Donovan was not actually master, but that Peter Petersen himself agrees that an outsider would be justified fti believing thjat Donovan was a "dummy." Donovan himself is explicit in his statement that he was engaged as sailing master or a nurse for Petersen- The latter in evidence says that Donovan asked him if he would go on the Akaroa to instruct him, as he was not used to rafting, and that Lamb asked him to go with Donovan for that purpose. Petersen deposes also that if Donovan could have got another man he would not have gone. He denies that he took charge, and says that he helped Donovan only at the tatter's request. Ido not think the evidence, though it raises a very strong presumption of irregularity, is sufficient to warrant conviction. I think it is l clear that Petersen was engaged to look after the rafting, and also that he was liot anxious to be re-engaged on the Akaroa. Donovan is illiterate, and sometimes intemperate, and while he may have had a settled notion that he was to be a 'dummy,' it is possible that he muddled the conditions of his femployment. I must say that there was every justification for the proceedings," said Mr. Wilson, "and I dismigs the information only because the evidence falls short of being conclusive."