D.—4.

166

[M. MYERS.

have not been sent down, so that there is absolutely no direct or convincing evidence of any deterioration in the river conditions. The only soundings that have been put in are the soundings which have been taken by the Railway Department in the neighbourhood of the wharf —not immediately at the berthage, but about 3 chains away ; and those soundings show that between 1907 and 1913 the conditions in that particular neighbourhood had not deteriorated, but, if anything, they had slightly improved. I come then to the record of the strandings, which has been put in by the Harbourmaster, and if the Commission will look at that record it will be seen that from February, 1913, until the present time there have been in all nineteen strandings. Now, in order to see what that means it is necessary to refer to the returns which my learned friend Mr. Weston put in yesterday. What do they show ? They show that from the 1st February, 1913, to the end of Februaiy, 1916, there were 572 vessels which arrived at the port. Of course, there is a limited number of vessels, but 1 mean 572 arrivals at Foxton. There were 180 from February to December in 1913; 176 in 1914 ; 185 in 1915 ; and 31 during January and February, 1916. That number of 572 should be increased by adding the arrivals during March., April, and May of this year. I have not included those arrivals in the total of 572, so that from the 1st February, 1913, to the end of February, 1916, there were. 1,144 arrivals and departures, and it is during that time that there were those nineteen strandings. I refer the Commission to the evidence of the Harbourmaster [see page 28, question 12]. The Harbourmaster is asked by Mr. Weston, " 1 think you have kept some returns of boats sticking I —Yes. [Return, 1913 to 1916, put in]." Then he is cross-examined by myself, and 1 ask, " Is this return you have produced a return of all the strandings ?—Yes, taken out of my diary." " And it is a complete list 1 —A complete list since 1913." Mr. Weston : It is only fair to say that I do not think those returns by the Harbourmaster are anything like exhaustive or accurate. Apparently he did not keep records of all the strandings. At the time I got that return from the Harbourmaster I had not obtained Mr. Keliow's diaries. I went through. Mr. Keliow's diaries, and in 1915 alone there were eighteen strandings inside the bar and two on the bar. That is twenty from the 1st January of this year to the 15th May. The " Awahou " was stranded seven times, five times inside and twice on the bar. The " Wakatu " came in once and was stuck once inside, while the " Queen of the South " was stuck no less than six times, four times inside and two on the bar. Mr. Kellow kept the actual returns because he had to make reports to his principals. If my friend is relying on those returns he is relying on something which, is not accurate. It was not the Harbourmaster's duty to keep those returns. Mr. Myers.] I should have thought it was. What I am relying on is the evidence. I am not disputing the correctness of Mr. Keliow's diaries or the accuracy of Mr. Keliow's testimony, whether they arc questions of fact or matters of opinion ; but I should assume that Mr. Kellow had kept a note of every touch, as it were, even though a vessel may not have been on the bank or on the sand for perhaps more than a very few minutes. Mr. Weston: If you look at the diary you will see the times they were stranded, how long they continued to stick, and the efforts which had to be made to got them off. That is all set out. Mr. Myers : All I can say is that I have not had the opportunity of seeing them. Mr. Weston : They have been in Court. Mr. Myers : I cannot read thern in the middle of my address. All I can refer to at the present moment is the evidence which has been given by the Harbourmaster, and as to Mr. Keliow's diaries, I make the observation which I have made, and which may or may not turn out to be correct on a perusal of the diaries. I asked the Harbourmaster, " Have you got a list for the four previous years ? " ,J * and he replied, " I have got my diaries. I could get that." I am citing the figures for the purpose of showing that the river conditions cannot be anything like as bad as some of the witnesses have suggested. But there is something more than that: if the Commission will look at the documents which my learned friend Mr. Weston put in yesterday it will be seen that the arrivals at this port have not been irregular. Take them week by week and month by month and you will see that they are . fairly regular. In order to do that may I ask the Commission to look at the details of two documents. First of all, we have a summary of the vessels that have entered the port and their respective registered tonnages from April, 1910, down to May, 1916. It will be seen that taking month by month the number of arrivals is well maintained, and that it cannot be said to have been in any way an irregular service. But that is not all : we have details of the arrivals at Foxton for the first three months of 191.6, and if those details are looked at it will be seen, taking, for instance, January, 1910, that there were arrivals on the 1st, 6th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th, 22nd, 25th, 27th, and 29th. That does not indicate any particular Mr. Weston : Will my friend notice that the neap tides arc at the beginning of the month. You will notice that in January the " Queen of the South " worked the port, but she does not come to port again for ten days, and then she works practically for three days. She is the smallest and best-adapted boat for that bar. Mr. Myers : It would be more convenient if my learned friend would keep his observations till later ; but I am glad he has interrupted me, because lie does not understand my point, which is this : that almost day after day you have one vessel or another —I do not care which'—entering this port. That indicates a regularity, and not, as has been suggested, an irregularity. Take, then, February, 1916. We have arrivals on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 16th, 17th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 25th, and 29th. There is a mistake in that return. At the foot of the return it says " From May 2nd to 22nd, 1916, 5 vessels, 675 tons," but if you look at the actual arrivals in the last column it will be seen that that number should be 8, and the tonnage is 1,068. In this connection, I might say that Mr. Kellow has written to the secretary of the Commission slightly correcting the statement made by him at Foxton. He says, " When I first joined the Foxton staff the ' Queen of the South ' averaged about eight trips per month, and during 1915 and 1916 she averaged about seven trips and a half per month."