before Niagara arrived. Dr Milson told the Commission that the BMA's opinion was that "Niagara was the cause of the epidemic" in New Zealand. However, before Niagara arrived there had been an outbreak near Auckland in the military camp at Narrow Neck. The first cases were recorded on 30 September. One doctor from the camp stated that on 10 October there were 169 cases, 39 were severe and three were pneumonic. Another stated there were 230 by 12 October. There was then a lull until 19 October, when cases at Narrow Neck increased again. About half of the cases at Narrow Neck that were diagnosed after 19 October were pneumonic, and from 20 October there were deaths. On 13 May 1919 the Commission published an interim report. It found, inter alia: "That, although the latter is not one capable of absolute demonstration, the evidence before is raises a very strong presumption that a substantial factor in the introduction of the epidemic was the arrival in Auckland on the 12th October of the s.s. "Niagara" with patients infected with the epidemic disease." The report exonerated Massey and Ward from interfering with the decision not to quarantine the ship, but it criticised Dr Russell for accepting Dr Mackenzie's diagnoses of "simple influenza", and GW Russell for not quarantining Niagara when the outbreak aboard her "made her a menace to the health of the city" (of Auckland). The Commission was given evidence that the condition of crew accommodation on a number of ships was unhealthy. WT Young, General Secretary of the Seamen's Union of Australia, raised this with the Union Company, and the Commission reported that "we were assured that considerable improvements were being effected in that company's vessels". However, the report suggested that the powers and duties of port health officers did not go far enough, and it called for "a regular procedure of constant supervision over the sanitary and hygienic conditions of the wharves and shipping". Aorangi In 1920 the Union Company revived its plan for a new liner to share the All-Red Line with Niagara. That June it announced that the new ship would be propelled by reduction-geared turbines like HMS Avenger, and capable of like Niagara. But the new ship would be considerably larger: and more than long. But in the 1920s marine diesel engines advanced rapidly in size and power. This led the Union Company to change its