45 of the Commissioner's report, was that only copies of existing
documents were to be destroyed; that he did not want any surplus
document to remain at large in case its contents were released to the
news media by some employee of the airline; and that his instructions
were that all documents of relevance were to be retained on the single
file. Their counsel submit in effect that in converting this direction
for the preservation of all relevant documents into a direction for the
destruction of 'irrelevant' documents--a word used by the Commissioner
as if it were a quotation from Mr Davis--the Commissioner distorted the
evidence. And it is said that the description 'one of the most
remarkable executive decisions every to have been made in the corporate
affairs of a large New Zealand company' is, to say the least,
far-fetched.

Counsel for the applicants point also to the fact that there is no
evidence that any document of importance to the inquiry was destroyed in
consequence of the instructions given by Mr Davis. The gist of the
contrary argument presented by Mr Baragwanath was that Mr Davis was
fully cross-examined about his instructions; and that 'it was open to
the Royal Commissioner to find that there were in existence documents
which never found their way to that file and that the procedures were
tailor made for destruction of compromising documents'.


Alteration of Flight Plan

Paragraph 255 (e) and (f), in numerical order the next passages
complained of, refer to the fact that when the co-ordinates in the
Auckland computer were altered a symbol was used which had the effect
of including in the information to be sent to the United States air