The report was also presented to the Hon. Speaker of the House Noble Tu'ilakepa last Thursday at the same presentation.

The Royal Commission Act, amended last August for the Ashika inquiry, states that an interim report be presented no later than November 30 and that the final report shall be presented no later than March 31.

The interim report states that it "needs to hear from more witnesses and consider other evidence. . . to enable it to comprehensively and definitively report agreeing that it would be inappropriate to make any preliminary findings on any terms of reference."

So far, the enquiry has heard more than 40 witnesses and 120 exhibits have been tendered as evidence before the Commission at the pubic hearings.

The Royal Commission also allowed the public to view 90 minutes of video footage of the doomed vessel resting on the seabed. A very small portion of the video was not shown out of respect for the families.

At the moment the public hearing is in recession and will resume on December 7. It will continue until December 18 and start up again on January 12 running until February 26 before the submission of the final report.

The Royal Commission has launched a website where the public can access all transcripts of the hearings as well as their interim report;

http://www.rcimvprincessashika.to

eTonga Tonga News