69
War
Land
of the ship having sailed in the South-West Monsoon, will be prevented in future by a notification which the Governor has issued, that no licences will hereafter be given to vessels sailing with Emigrants to Australasia or Oceania between April and September inclusive. The second,
The second, which implied want of care in the examination of the provisions by the Emigration officers, it is attempted to controvert by an examination of the European Evidence given in New Zealand.
This evidence can scarcely be accepted as free from bias, but as it was stated by the Coroner at Dunedin, in transmitting the proceedings at the inquest to the New Zealand Government, that the Chinese evidence, though available for the inquiry, was so badly translated by the interpreter that it was almost impossible to produce it, there is no alternative but to accept the European evidence as the best that can be obtained.
I do not think, however, that it so entirely exculpates the Emigration Officer at Hongkong. be assumed.
"3. The "Guiding Star" was not cleared by the Harbour Master and Emigration offices, Mr. Thorburn, but in his absence by his locum