W. NICHOLLS.]

143

H.—29.

214. Do you corroborate all that he said, or do you differ on any points, or have you anything to add? —I think it was fairly correct, Of course, he does not seem to have had much experience so far as I can see. Take the loading of trucks, we are compelled now by the Railway to put so many bales on an L truck, and so many on an La truck, so having to put a number of bales on these trucks it makes a flat top, and if two tarpaulins are not enough we have three, and if there is a hole on the side we cover it with another tarpaulin, so that if the wool is covered up there is no fear of any trouble, because if it does take a little wet it will not hurt. If you take a bucketful of wool and put water on it, the wool will float after it is scoured. The shipping companies are getting scared at taking wool after these .fires, and I had seven or eight bales returned to me. The tarpaulin had been pulled off at Lyttelton, and the water got on the bales and it was sent back, but it only had to be put into fresh packs. 215. Who do you hold responsible for sending it back?—l do not know. If they had put that wool on board it would not have taken any damage. 216. Do you think two or three hours' exposure to the sun would have dried it?—Oh, yes, it would have dried in the ship. 217. You heard what the last witness said in regard to wetting the ends of bales —do you think there is much in that?—l do not think so. 218. Have you ever had any experience of wool heating seriously?—No. All the years I have been shipping wool I have never had any returned to me except those about two months ago that I spoke of. About fourteen years ago we erected a kiln at Belfast, when Mr. Watt was alive, and we dried some wool in it; but through not being accustomed to drying in that way, we took the wool out before it was dry and stacked it away for a length of time. We packed that wool and shipped it, and there were about two hundred bales reported as country damaged, and that wool lost 30 lb. on the way Home, but it did not catch fire. The report we received was that it was caked. 219. What proportion of a bale would 301b. be—what percentage on the weight of the wool? —On the wool itself ? 220. On the weight of the bale itself —how much would that be per cent. ?—The bales would run 350 lb. net. 221. What wool was it?—Sliped wool—this particular lot was skin wool. 222. That is, roughly, 10 per cent.?—Yes. 223. We are told that wool contains in its normal condition anything from 10 to 18 per cent, of moisture?—Before it is scoured. 224. In the condition to which the atmosphere will bring it? —If exposed: if scoured wool is exposed it would take up that moisture. 225. Not so much with scoured wool, but that is the water element in wool? —I do not know. 226. What I want to point out is that your wool only lost 10 per cent. ?—Yes. 227. Probably a portion of that 10 per cent, may have been the evaporation of the natural moisture in addition to what you put into it, so that it might have been very wet in the beginning? —I think it was the water we left in and had not taken out. 228. Do you not think it would have taken more than that : the fermentation of heat would take out more and some of the original moisture?—Why 7 I mentioned it losing 301b. a bale was because I hardly- thought it possible to take up that quantity without firing. 229. If you took out 301b. it was only 201b. more than was left in?—Yes. 230. I know you have made a study of wool, and I thought possibly you had considered that? —No, I have not, 1 have just shown that wool will carry 30 lb. of moisture, and the report was that it was badly caked. Since that I have not had any cases —I have been very careful, and I take it that if a fellmonger or wool-scourer is careful there is no need whatever to have any damaged wool. 231. But if you have not had the experience, as a matter of theory or opinion, do you think that wool will heat spontaneously to the point of burning?—Not to catch fire, you mean? 232. Well, to get hot enough to bring about the same effect: if it does not catch will it accumulate sufficiently to fire anything else?—lt would to the packs. 233. You think so?—Yes, I am sure of it, 234. So that a sufficient amount of moisture in a bale endangers a ship to fire?—Yes. 235. Captain Blackburne] Do you say you have tested that?—Yes. I have seen wool so hot that it would scorch—it will not blaze. 236. Mr. Foster] Were you present when Mr. Hood gave his evidence?—l did not hear what he was saying. 237. Mr. Hood was a carrier, and he gave an instance of wool firing almost to total destruction—only seven out of the thirty bales were saved. That fire broke out on his wagon, and within forty minutes, he told us, the wool was burning and the wagon was almost entirely consumed?—l cannot understand it. 238. The Chairman] Assuming that it caught extraneously, there is the fact that he only got seven out of thirty bales?—l should not think it possible. 239. Mr. Foster] Then, as regards the manipulation of skins, you deal in wool and skins of every kind ?—Yes. 240. You heard the evidence of the previous witness as to the method in which they deal with them. Is there anything in your opinion which is defective or which might be improved upon as likely to lead to anything? —1 do not think so. Of course, you see the chemical —that is, sulphide of sodium—comes in drums, and if you covered that with bales they would catch fire. Directly it is used it is mixed with lime and put on the pelt and takes the wool off in about thirty-six hours. That is all it is, and they then dry the wool, and the lime and the chemical is dead. 241. Do I understand you to mean that the sulphide of sodium in a drum, if it is covered with a bale and no other moisture that it would fire the woolpack?—Yes, I have done that myself,