MACQUARIE RELIEF PARTY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1840, 28 August 1913, Page 5

MACQUARIE RELIEF PARTY.

TUTANEKAI'S TRIP. SCENES ON BARREN ISLES; LONG RANGE WIRELESS. OPERATOR'S REMARKS ON THE WORK. (By Telegraph— Special Roporter.)' Bluff, August 27. The Auckland Islands were reached at an early hour 011 Saturday morning after a most uncomfortable trip, during which the vessel laboured heavily. These islaiids differ altogether in character from the Macquaries. The coast lino is nioro precipitous, bold escarpments of root rising sheer out of the .water to a height varying from 200 feet to 400 feet. Abovo this cliff wall the hills slope more gently upwards! Another, and a far more generous, impression of UlO group is gained by entering any ono of the numerous; harbours. There it can be seen that the place boasts a rich, if not a very varied, vegetation, rising to about 200 feet abovo the water level. This mostly consists of southern rata, which grows' thickly to u. height of 30 feet or more. Auckland Island Harbours. Tho whole of the Auckland Islands are simply fissured w : ith fine harbours. The iirst one which we entered—Camley Harbour —would take in two or three harbours as largo at Port Nicholson, and Captain Bollons thinks that the Dominion can boast- no harbour anything liko as good as it. Norman's Inlet is another beautiful cove reminiscent of the Marlborough Sounds, and Port Ross (at the llor'th end) is a capacious sheet of water offering plenty of shelter. At these and other places the Government food depots and boat houses were examined and found to bo intact, At Carnley Harbour a great number of sea lions were seen, and somo excellent photographs wero secured by members of tho party. Extremely boisterous weather was met with all round tho coast, but the harbour trips were delightful, A Peep at the Depots. We were at the Aucldands 011 Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, examining tho depots and boat houses at Erebus Cove (where there exists a pathetic little cemetery of those who have died on the island). Enderbv Island, Ewing Island, and Disappointment Island (whero the survivors of the ship Dundonald lived for seven and a half mouths before they were able to make their way to the main land). At each place the store houses were found to be intact ,and no responses wore received to the ■ weird questioning of the ship's siren. Finally tho Tutanekai left Disappointment Island on the run home at 2.30 p.m. The Sealers' Lot, Among the passengers returning from the Macquaries were seven sealers who had been engaged in oil-getting for Mr. Joseph Hatch. They are the reverse of satisfied with their lot, and are pleated to get back again to civilisation. Tho names of the men are: Oscar Anderson, Christian Christiansen, Win. Lambach. Henry Bengtsson (who went down to

the Islands last September), Edward Day,' James Martin, and James Bartei, who 'went down from Wellington by tho brigaiitine Rachel Cohen in January last.

When interviewed by your correspondent the men stated that they had entered into an agreement with Mr. Hatch to go down to the Macquaries to

wiii penguin and sea-elephant oil—tho former at the rate of ss. Bd. per ton, and the latter at 9s. per ton, and had been assured that at those rates they could make about £40 each, and that, oven if they did not like to stay on, they could return in Apri}-. Tho result, had been quite the reverse of what had been expected, for in itlio last year— or rather since the party went down; in September in the Rachel Cohon—tlie.v

had between them only secured 247 casks of [penguin oil and thirty-threo of sea-elephant oil, which, at the figures mentioned, worked out to a total sum of £13 10s. Out of that amount thev had to pay for clothes, stores, lamp oil, tobacco, and grog. Naturally, under the conditions and having missed the best half of tho penguin season, they decided to get back by the Rachel Cohen, when she came in April, having corno to the conclusion that there was nothing in it. Now it appears that .the Rachel Cohon arrived in Hobart-in Maich last, but instead of her leaving then for tho Macquaries, they received a wireless message in April stating that the vessel would not he down for another three months. . On learning that the men

wired to Mr. Hatoh on April 16 stating that they were short of food, a,nd to that message they got no reply. They never heard that tho Rachel Cohen was loading timber at Port Esperance (Tasmania) for Melbourne. She arrived at Melbourne on May 6, and left again on May 26 with a general cargo for Hobart,, but owing rto being delayed at Queenscliff, she did not reach there (Hobart) until tho end of June. On June 2D tho men sent another message to Mr. Hatch stating that they were very short of food, but again they cot no reply. Tho Rachel Cohen finally left Hobart for the Islands on Saturdav, July 5 and missed. The men thqn went to

the head of the Mawson Expedition, and got him to dispatch a wireless message to the secretary to the expedition, Mr. Eitel, to see what could be done. On August 11 the men wired to Mr. Hatch, at Invercargill: "Arrange passages for seven passengers on steamer," and received the reply that arrangements would be made. The Sealors* Food and Health. Questioned as to what stores had Tun out as early as April last, the men stated that they wero then out of meat, salt, vegetables, sugar, and preserved milk, but still had oatmeal, biscuits, flour, and cereals. Somo of these were exchanged with the Mawson party for tinned vegetables. Later on their kerosene gave out, and they had to mako slush lamps out of ele-phant-oil. Their chief food during this period of stress was sea elephants' meat, and now and again a few Maori hens (for which they had to tramp five or six miles), limpets, and a little fish. If the thing had paid, the men would have been contcntcd to stay on, but they, were neither able to make the money promised, nor wore they even able to got back when they anticipated. As it wak, the small amount made did not pay for tho provisions. It was not quite clear as to whether they did not owo Mr.' Hatch money, but, whatever this amount, they held that it was paid off by, Mr. Hatch having failed to take them off tho island in April last. Three men remained on tho island, and, with the one which the Tutanekai took down (J. Vincent) makes only four men left to work the oil business. Questioned as to their general health, tho spokesmen, Martin and Day, said that somo of them had been "off colour." Mr. Hatch in Reply. When informed of the men's statement, Mr. Hatch said that it was not his fault that the men had been delayed at tho Macquaries. At the beginning of the year tho then master of tho Rachel Cohen (Captain Newman) had a proprietary interest, ill her, and the . dolay whioh had occurred betwocn tile.

time that she arrived at Ilobart and left again for tho Macquaries had been caused partly through legal troubles with him and tho delay entailed ill the vessel going to Melbourne to bo fitted with ongines, which work was never done. He, personally, would havo been only too delighted to havo seen the Rachel Cohen return to the islands right away for another load of oil, as she had oidy brought 210 barrels to Hobart in February, instead of the full of GOO barrels. His personal loss had been considerable through the very reason that ho had not been able to get his oil away.

Mr. Hatch admitted having received tho wireless massage, to which he (under tho circumstances in which he was then placed) had not replied. Ho was under an obligation to leave Hobart with stores for the Mawson party in June, and he actually got away on July 5, but, unfortunately, they were blown past the Islands. The Macquaries' Wlroless. Among those who returned from the Macquaries by the Tutanekai was Mr. Arthur Sawyer, tho wireless operator, who has been working the Macquaries station since its erection at the ond of 1901. Mr. Sawyer has returned uecause of indifferent health, which may or may not be at least attributable to the vulgar fare which the men have had to subsist on for tho past two months or more. He confesses that

he is glad to get away, as the life is very hard, rough, and monotonous at tho Islands. Hard gales blew almost continuously, ram fell almost every day, and it was uniformly very cold ; which made life rather depressing. His day's work commenced at about 8 p.m., when

he climbed the bleak hill at the northend of the island to the wireless hut, partly _ built in the ground, at a height of 300 ft. above tho water level. He stayed there listening for hews from tho north or south, east or west up till 3 a.m. ol i a.m. in tho morning. Then he turned into his bunk at tho hut, and slept till about 11 a.m. or noon. On waking, ho went down the hill to tho main hut, had dinner, and did his share of the general necessary work. One duty whieh could never bo neglected—tho cooking—was attended to week about by each of the five men of the party, and all had become expert chefs. Regarding tho food scare,, they were never so badly off as had appeared to havo been made out, as one could live practically a life timo on the products whioh the Island had to offer. Talks With Fiji and Papua. "The Telefunken wireless set (li kilowatts)," said Mr. Sawyer, "has don<3 really wonderful work, though, perhaps, I should not bo the one to say so. On several occasions, however, I have spoken to the Suva station, 2*loo miles away. By 'spoken' I mean completed messages both sent and received, without which no wireless record is. a record at all. On three occasions I have hold conversations with Port Moresby (Papua), 2800 miles away, whieh is, I think, a record for Australasia for a 1J kilowatt set. Tho last occasion was on Juno 6 last, when wo exchanged ideas on tho temperature. ,1 told him that it was perishingly cold' down here, snd he said that ho was so warm that he was working in a pair of trousers and singlet only. We both envied one another." Talks With Aclelle Land. And did you get into touch with Di. Mawson whenever you wanted him "Oh, yes; pretty well every time, but it all depended on tho conditions. Sometimes it blew so hard that tho noise of the wind howling past the hut made it impossible for me to tako_ a message, aud then, again, there might be atmospheric disturbances in botween which prevented communication. Still, as a rule, I, was generally able to keep in touch except during the time' when tho ice party's poles wero blown down. Hero is a whole pocket-book full of notes from the Mawson party, some of vhom valuable ones, which, of course, I cannot divulge. There were some nigbts when I was kept quite busy. Tho record night, as far as messages from Adelio Land- are concerned was about 1200 words." Mr. Sawyer; who was tlio. operator at the Hotel Australia station before ho went to the Macquaries,'means to talio a spell before resuming work again. He intends, duruig the time; to visit his homo in Gisborne. ' '■