"GOOD REASON FOR SILENCE"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 170, 5 August 1937, Page 12

"GOOD REASON FOR SILENCE"

Distressed Settlers From Stmday Island TALE OF HAUNTED, BILLY Five men stepped off the Maui Pomare at Lyttelton on MoncJay and loudly voiced their joy at being baek in civilisation. They were the "distressed passengers" who had been brought from Sunday Island, in the Kermadee Group, and they acknowledge that they are disillnsioned men. Beyond that information they studiously avoided most of the questions put t>o them, but ,it was obvious from their appearancc that the serious shortage of nourishing food was a reason for their returning to New Zealand. All were tliin and admitted that they had lo,st mueh weight in the last few months. Tliey claimed that they had good reason for the silence with wliich they greeted other questions. They were sheltering, they said, behind instruetions whieh they claimed to have received from thq New Zealand Government to avoid publicity until the Governmeat had heard their story. The men are: Messrs J. Grant, aged 44, gardener; A. Flewellyn, aged 24, carpenter; L. Flewellyn, aged 19, labourer; A. McGee, aged 23, farmer; and S. Sneddon, aged 22, stoker. They all belong to Auckland. Instructed to Keep Silent Mr A. Flewellyn, who .strenuously denied liis identity, said that a uaessage had been received through the temporary wireless of the survey party to the effeet that the departiiig settlers were to observe silence until they had been seen by Government officials at Wellington. Mr Sneddon said that, of the seven men on the island, the two who had l-een there for some years, Messrs A. Bacon and B. Robertson, had remained quite apart fiom the iive who had left, but qu&rrels had developed between the factions. Although these quarrels never reached the stage of physical violence, they were sufiicieat in themselves to make the island too small for them. There were other di:ficultics. The island was infested by rats, whicli attaeked stores and crops, and the food shortage became so acute that \T i' Grant lived for almost three months on boiled puinpkin. The animai Jii'e of the island was restricted almost solely to hundreds of goats, but their meat was said to be quite uneatable. The settlers' ouiy success with goat meat was in the making of brawn from the kids. "We knew nonu of the reat facts about Ihe island until We got there," said Mr McGee. Rats Destroy Crops That part of the crops whicli was uot destroyed by rats seemed to rot in the ground before it reached maturity. The sea about the island was teeming with lish, but it was aimo.st imtiossible to cateh them. A rremendous surf broke on the only beach and the rocks were dangerous. 'Tliere were only two good things which these men had to say for the island — it grow good fruit and it was extremeiy bealIhy. On the subject of the reported quarrels at the island the men were evasive, but Mr Grant acknowledged that there had been distinct trouble. Beyond that he would not elaborate. btrange tales of a "haunted" billy and eerie noises at night were told bv ihe men. They corifess that they are now almost believers in the oceult, but they also admit that through lack of food and other trOubles their nerves are not now as strong as they were a i'ew months ago. N evertheless, they stehdfastly declare that their tale of the behaviour of a tin billy is true. The story was told to a reporter by Mr Grant and was' later conlirmed by the others. The billy, aceording to Mr Grant, ivi'.s an ordinary oue' which, he had taken to the island in April, and soon ai'ter then he discovered its pecuiiar behaviour. Every time it reached boiiing point it capsized. First it was bslanced on stone and later it was propped up with more stones, green stieks or other stakes, but they copld do uothing to stop it from tippiug over. From a joke it became a serious meutal strain, and as other billies were tried and were found to behave in the ordinary way the strain became greater. Each of the men now firmly believes that some unseen powe.r was responsible for a capsizing of the billy.