I.—6a.

82

[S. KENNEDY.

a man whom his foreman and the Department knew would run his train to time if that train could be run to time, he would think nothing of pulling up in a fog. But if a young man is on a train like that and he stops, and then crawls into the station and arrives late he is reported, or he has to report it himself, and explain. It is recognized as being a. reflection on a man when he gets these reports. None of us like them. It shows there is some dissatisfaction. When this young man would come in late he would be asked why he was late. He would say, " There was a fog." His foreman would say, "If we had had so-and-so there, there would not have been this." And if he repeated the performance I will guarantee that the foreman would consider whether he was suitable for the main line. But if you had an old driver who had consistently run trains and he did this, the foreman would know at onco that he was a man who would run his train if it could be done safely, and he would excuse him. I want to point out that a young man, as far as losing time is concerned, is practically between the devil and the deep sea. He is afraid to run late—he seems to think he must get there to time if he is going to make a reputation; and this is a factor that is very likely to make a young driver make a mistake in judgment. Now, when an engine-driver enters a fog in running a train, it is a very trying time indeed for the driver, whether lie knows the road or not. The windows that he has been in the habit of looking through to see where lie is become at once opaque; the vapour has covered the window. He must put his head outside. Putting your head out in a fog to look sideways or backwards is not very serious, but when you look forward in a fog the air is moist and cold, and jour eyes begin to run, and you can see very little indeed. You can see a great deal further when you are standing still than when the train is running. With regard to the speed at which the train went down the hill that morning, there is absolutely no reliable proof that there was excessive running, or that the train was not controlled in a proper manner. The guard himself says that there was no unusual lurching. Some one else said he noticed a lurch that morning, but he had noticed it afterwards. Of course, we know that passengers coming down Scroggy Hill now will feel a great many things; so you can very easily account for that. The practice that was followed at New Lynn of crossing these two trains has never, to my knowledge, been allowed in the South Island : I have not seen it made a practice. I have seen a train, in broad daylight, with a clear view in each way, when it was more convenient, taken up and backed into the other end, but that was done after they had stopped and when they had a clear view. Such a thing as doing it in the dark would not, I think, be tolerated in Canterbury or the South Island for one moment. I never knew of such a thing, and I can assure you I was very much surprised when I heard witnesses state that it had been the practice to cross these two trains in this manner for a long time at New Lynn. I was not at all surprised when I heard that the general public expected an accident, because I state unhesitatingly that it was a dangerous practice, and it is a good job that it is discontinued —in fact, it is a good job that that accident was no more serious than it has been. Now, the question cropped up about the driver talking to his mate, and Mr. McVilly, in his cross-examination, seemed to think that Corich should have spoken to his mate and got answers. Now, I want to say that you are not in a drawing-room when you are in the cab of an engine and she is running down a hill, especially in a fog. This engine was blowing off all the way down the hill. There was a continual roar. There would be the rattle and grind of the wheels and the motion of the engine, and the fireman has his business to attend to; the driver has his business to attend to; and instead of going over and conversing with his mate his head is outside trying to see where he is. If you want to converse with your mate, in most cases you do not talk, you shout. It is only natural that the driver would say to the fireman, "I do not know where these crossings are; you blow the whistle," and it is quite natural that the fireman did not hear him. And with regard to the driver asking the fireman a question about the running of the train, I want to tell you that whether it is a driver on a train or any other man in a position where he has a subordinate under him, there is a reticence in asking the other man what you shall do. Corich that morning was quite competent to take that engine and run that train provided there was no fog. He did not know there would be a fog when he went over Scroggy Hill, and there was not time for him to make all this elaborate preparation in the way of questioning his fireman and arranging for him to do this, that, or the other thing. It is infra dig, in fact, to do it. After going over the top of the hill there would be very little time before the accident happened. T cannot say just now what the distance is, but it is under a mile. Tt would be about three minutes from the time he crossed over Scroggy Hill until the collision took place. So there was not a great deal of time to converse; and you must remember that if a man has his head outside the cab the other man cannot hear what he is saying. He has to turn round and face the man and speak very loudly before he can hear. When Corich got no reply from the fireman he was probably eagerly scanning the track in front of him, or trying to pick up some object or some mark that he would know the road by; and that is why the conversation between the two was not as satisfactory as it perhaps should have been. Now, with regard to the time it would take to learn this road, there has not been very much evidence before you with regard to that. Mr. Benney stated that it would take three weeks to learn the road, but he said you would not know it in a fog then. He meant it would take three weeks to learn the road so that you would know it in daylight. You know a road all right at night, because you can always see the signals; but a man might be running on that road for years and not know it properly in a fog, but he would have a better idea than Corich had. Now. I just want to try to convey to you a proper impression of the experience that Corich had on the north road. Running-shed Foreman Scott said in his evidence that Corich had run in all twenty-one trips on the north road. He did not say Corich had run twenty-one trips past New Lynn. I can give you the trips that Mr. Scott counts up. On the 10th March, 1913, Corich ran trains 27, 22, 33, and 26—four trains; and Mr. Scott credits him with having run four trips on the north road on that date. Now, he ran the same trips on the llfh and 13th March. On three days he can these four trips. I want to tell you what these four trips were. Tn the