18th June.
Two important decisions, one in the Naval Court, the other in the Supreme Court, were given here on Saturday and are printed in full in another column, Ihe Naval Court was called to enquire into the stranding of the steamer Whampoa on the 7th of May, near the South-east Promontory, and the noticeable feature of it is that the Court could not come to any conclusion as to how the steamer got ati the rocks, though they practically. found that no one was to blame. 'I'he master, Mr. Hutchison, "navigated his vessel in a seamaulikeaud propermauner;" the weather was thick, and he accordingly took the precaution to set a rather more easterly course than usual, a course that would take him some six miles farther than usual outside the Promontory; there was no evidence that there was any laxity on board in seeing that the quarter masters steered this course; there was no evidence that there was any unusual westerly set while the Whampoa was running the 330 miles from Shaweishan to the Promontory; and yet instead of the Whampoa' being where the course steered should have put her, 18 miles east of the Promontory, she was brought up by rocks 2} mile west thereof; that is, she was} something over 20 miles to the westward of where she ought to have been. It must be always unsatisfactory to all concerned when a carefully navigated steamer on a well-known route is stranded without any reason being assigned for the casualty, and accordingly the Court make two suggestions in' their finding, The first is that the Whampoa was put some twenty miles out of course by a westerly set—though there was no evidence that two other steamers which were on the same course at about the same time experienced any unusual westerly set—and some unknown error of the compass. The second is that Captain Hutchison mistook the Pinnacle Rock for a junk. But he was so near the mainland, from which the Pinnacle Rock is only one hundred yards distant, according to the Chief Officer, that at the speed the Whampoa was going, fully nine knots, it is doubtful whether she would have been saved if this mistake had not been made. Ihe most probable cause remaining, presuming as we do that the evidence given to the Court is absolutely trustworthy, is that there was an error of the compass. It is obvious that a very slight error of the compass would put the Whampoa 20 miles out in a run of 330 miles; and the Court somewhat doubtfully suggest that. it "may possibly have been due to the steel bars forming part of the cargo-in the tween decks." The second officer of the Whampoa testified that " there was steel on the starboard side of the fore hatch and port side of the main hatch. It was over 20 and within 50 feet of the standard compass. It was in the tween decks." Captain Hutchison, it should be stated, did not) attempt to throw the blame on the] compass. He said: "I do not think the stowage of these bars would have affected the compasses," adding in reply to his own counsel: "I have simply stated my opinion that the steel bars: did not affect the compass. I have! heard of cases where they did." It is mentioned in the finding of the Court that an experiment had been carried out on board, before the Court, to try how far a parcel of steel in the position that the bars were on the 7th of May, did affect the compass, but it was "held to be unsatisfactory as it was found to he impossible to reproduce the conditions existing at the time of stranding." It is perfectly well known that a parcel of steel stowed near the fore hatch the tween decks even of a steel ship will, sometimes affect the compass, and if it did not do so in the present case, there is nothing left, as far as the evidence given to the Court goes, to account for the Wham-moe being 20 miles out of her course. We wonder that nothing was said about the speed at which the IVampoa was going in weather so thick that the mainland was only visible when the steamer was one cable's length from it obviously the Court did not think the speed too high; and we may fairly congratulate Captain Hutchison on having come so well out of a disagreeable situation.
The second case, that in the Supreme Court, is one which most people will think had much better have been kept out of Court, and that if the defendant was determined to fight the claim against him be had better have been content with the Assistant Judge's decision in the Summary Court, But the public cannot complain as the case has been the means of eliciting a very long and able decision from the Chief Justice, Mr. Hannen, Law claiming to be the perfection of common sense, it would have caused a general shock if the decision had been other {than what it was, For some seven years Mr. Kingsmill had paid his wife's bills, and then he suddenly, without any notice to the tradespeople with whom his wife had been in the habit of dealing, refused to pay a bill contracted by his wife before she" cleared out" of his house, to use the defendant's own expression. The case was put very neatly by the Chief Justice during the hearing: "Who contention is extraordinary, that 2 tradesman who has dealings with a husband and wife living together, ought always to be under the impression that they are going to quarrel, that the {husband is -going to withdraw his authority, and that the tradesman should go and engaire every day when ther a quarrel has taken place." The contention is against common sense, and it is satisfactory to find that it is against the law too, The case, as the Chief Justice said, though apparents ly simple-enough, was " undoubtedly a case which-has great interest both for the parties and: the general public," and therefore the long and elaborate finding in question was given. The defendant ay not be satisfied even now, but after all he may congratulate himself that the plaintiffs did not employ counsel and thus add to the trivial costs which he is called upon to pay.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.