MR. JUSTICE HOOD: What do you say the owner ought to have done? MR. BOX: See that the window catches were safe. If there is a manifestly dangerous opening, and the catches are merely little screws, then the owner has not taken all reasonable means. The owner takes the responsibility of a jury finding that he has not taken all reasonable means of ensuring the safety of the vessel. The issue is one which the jury has a right to determine. Suppose there were no question of a certificate, and it were a fight between the two of us, I would submit that we would be entitled to hold the verdict. THE CHIEF JUSTICE remarked that in the case of a concealed defect known only to the owner, or a palpable defect, the certificate would amount to nothing, but in the case of a defect which was not observed, but which proved fatal, the owner should not be held liable. THE CHIEF JUSTICE: One of the witnesses makes a very important observation, viz., that when once on her beam ends it was all over with the steamer, and if that were so it was not the pantry window did it. MR. BOX: All that points to the vessel not being fit for outside service. THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL reminded Mr. Box that the vessel had been to Tasmania. MR. BOX observed that this was a trial trip, and she took a man who volunteered to go. Once the _Alert_ nearly got swamped in the Bay. The pantry window should have been passed by a shipwright surveyor, which Captain Deary was not. THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL said that Captain Deary was described as a shipwright surveyor, but he was not qualified as such. THE CHIEF JUSTICE: Is not that a ground for attacking the Government which put him there? THE CHIEF JUSTICE gave the results of a calculation he had made, which showed that the cargo was below the water line. MR. BOX: What is your Honour’s authority? THE CHIEF JUSTICE: The authority which I started with is the twelfth proposition of Euclid’s first book. (Laughter.) MR. WILLIAMS submitted that the reasonable means to be taken to ensure the sea-worthiness of the vessel did not depend on the opinion of the owner or master, but on those of the jury.