Sessional_Paper_1901 — Page 702

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connection with No. 34, Cochrane Street. With the exception of measuring the street, I made no inspection whatever of No. 34, Cochrane Street. Since my arrival in the Colony, I have been the only inspector or overseer of private buildings for the whole Colony. I have nothing to add to my former evidence as to the cause of collapse. Since I last gave my evidence I have found among the débris, iron rods with a nut at one end which had evidently been used for a shelving or cockloft for storing iron pipes, &c. The iron rods are bolted through the floor joists throwing extra weight on the floor. This was in the blacksmith's shop. This is a common thing in the Colony in blacksmiths' shops. The floor joists have therefore to carry many hundredweights more than they were intended to carry. The wood work entering the wall from the wooden bearers causes cutting about of the party wall, and the extra vibration of the business of the smith might have contributed to the collapse. Sketch H is a sketch of a shelf which I suspect was in this blacksmith's shop. With defective walls it is not safe to have a blacksmith's shop on the ground floor of a tenement house. In my experience in England I have never seen a smith's shop under a tenement house.

Remanded until Monday, 23rd September, 1901, at 10 a.m.

24th September, 1901.

F. A. HAZELAND, Police Magistrats.

LEUNG TUNG declared and examined :-

I am managing partner of the Tung Yik blacksmith shop. We now carry on business at 41, Wing On Street. Up to the time of the collapse we carried it on 32, Cochrane Street.

We were a year and a half at No. 32, Cochrane Street. We made verandah brackets, railings, and water pipes. The brackets were the heaviest things we made. I supplied building contractors with iron building materials. All the work was done on the ground floor. The forge was in front of the kitchen in the back part of the shop. The forge was nearer to No. 34, Cochrane Street.

The bellows were

between the wall and the forge. I could not pass between the forge and the wall. The staircase was on the 34, Cochrane Street side. Against the wall and between the staircase and the forge was a long working bench. The anvil was in the middle of the room. The anvil was 3 feet in front of the forge. The forge had a back and a hood. The forge was not moved at the time of the actual alter- ations-but the hood was. The alterations made my shop deeper. During the alterations the staircase was moved out two feet. I was away at the time of the accident. I went away on the 12th August and returned on the 18th August. Most of my material was stored on the ground floor in the middle of the shop. I stored a quantity of short pipes against the wall--the wall of No. 30. On No. 34, there was no room to store the pipes. I had no brackets against the wall of No. 34. I had brackets stored against the wall of No. 30 only. There were things against the wall of No. 34. They were sundry things. Most of the things were stored on the No. 30 side of the wall. The kitchen on the ground floor was used for storing sundry iron goods. The cooking was on the 1st floor. In the Front part of the 1st floor my family lived in a cubicle and in the back part of my shop my fokis lived. In the verandah there were a few stools. There was no iron stored on the verandah." I had no spare anvil on the 1st floor. These verandah brackets are made of flat iron bars about 3 inches wide. only bent the iron bars in the shop. The iron bars were made in England. I had to cut them, bend them in the proper shape and drill holes into them. The bars were half an inch in thickness. I had 20 fokis, they all slept at No. 32. Nine of my fokis were killed.

HENRY GARROD sworn and examined by Mr. BOWLEY:-

I

I am Police Sergeant 33. At about 11 p.m., on the 14th August last, I first saw the fallen houses in Cochrane Street. When I got there, there was a fire in the north-east part of No. 32. It appeared to be on the ground floor. It took the best part of an hour to put the fire out completely. The front walls and the verandahs had fallen out on the road. There was about 10 feet in height at the back of the party wall left, and the rest had fallen into the house. The floors had also fallen at an angle. The higher portion of each floor being against the standing walls. I was on special duty for 10 days clearing up the débris. The supports of the verandahs I found on the side channel on the east side of the street. They had fallen right down. There were no signs of any material being stored on the verandah. The whole of the material on the ground floor was turned over in searching for corpses. I found a quantity of iron rods and iron pipes in the blacksmith's shop. It was on the north side of No. 32. There was no indication of iron stored on the south side. I noticed a work- ing bench on the south side. If there had been a quantity of iron on the south side I would have noticed it. There was no indication of a cockloft as sketched in Exhibit H on the ground floor of No. 32.