STILL MISSING

Hokitika Guardian, 4 September 1931, Page 5

STILL MISSING

AN INCORRECT REPORT. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 3. The Secretary of the G.P.O. has retiiv|Vl tfiie foil lowing further report from tlie Postmaster at Taumanmui at 7.20 p.m.; “The Postmaster at Enia now states that he cannot confirm bis earlier report announcing the finding of Stantion.” . - NO HOPE. THE CHATEAU, September- 3. Practically no hope of finding Stanton alive is now held out. He lias now been lost for six clays and five nights. The buslrmen declare that it would be a miracle if he was found alive. The area in which it i s knr.wn that he must be, lias been narrowed down to an area of a few miles, and as the re were live hundred nui searching it to-day, it is improbable that if he were alive, he would not have In the calls of some of them and .have answered. The leaders of the search partes came in to the Chateau to-night, ana they saw Addis. He has completely recovered, and he was able to give them a clear, definite description o : ‘ where he left Stanton. As the result of thi s information, it is hoped to find this spot early to-morrow. WHERE STANTON WAS LEFT. HIDDEN BY LOG. SAD DISCOVERY EXPECTED. THE CHATEAU, September 3. Addis, continuing bis story, said thaf after leaving the girls with Graham and Harris, he and Stanton fol owed a stream that has since been ascertained to be a tributary of the Makatote. All day they waded down through icy waiter. At 330 Stanton collapsed. Addis said that he hacl fallen over three times, and was utterly exhausted. Addis although loth to do so, decided that he would have to leave him, and try and get help for the sake of the girls. He helped Stanton out of the stream, and took him a few yards into the bush bn the left bank, where there was a log, povered with lawyer and other vegetation. He left Stanto’ in a hollow on the opposite side of this log to the river. He would not be visible from the river declared Addis. This point had pot previously been known to tlie searchers, who were under the impression that Stanton had been left under a log facing the stream and they have acordingly been looking for him by wading through the stream. Addis was definitely able to describe the location of this spot. He stated that half an hour after he left Stanton,.he lay? down for the night. The following morning he wad-id down the stream for two hours, until he came to some forks, where the vater was running very fast. These forks are where the Base Camp was established last night. He crossed here, and proceeded for some distance down the left bank of the Makatote, where he met a party of searchers. According to his story, then, he left Startton two and a-half hours’ journey upstream from the forks. In his weak condition Addis could not have walked very fast and the bushmen consider, from this that he must have left Stanton two miles upstream from the. forks. A party intends woring up this bank tomorrow morning, the men deploying and walking a few yards from each other,’ beating the bush, and in this way, it is considered, they cannot miss the spot. The opinion has been expressed tlr.t Stanton recovered after a spell, and that when the sun broke through the iblouds at 8.30 the following morning, which was .the first time the sun had been seen since the party was lost he would pick up his bearings and try io gi t back to the snn li eag i . ( Addis considers, however, that Stanton was in such a state that he could not .recover.

There is a feeling that he died during the night, and that when the party finds the lawyer-covered log on the left bank of the stream, they will find his body under it.

REMARKABLE SCENE.

NEAR MAKATOTE VIADUCT.

500 SEARCHERS ERE DAWN.

THE CHATEAU, September 3

Remarkable scenes were witnessed at Petersen’s Mill, a few chains below thme Makatote Railway Viaduct, in the early hours of this morning, when several hundred men assembled and went into the bush to join in the search for Stanton. At 3.45 a.m. the Auckland express stopped just south of the viaduct, and dropped 167 men from Taumauranui. Shortly after a goods train arrived bringing men from Ohakune and Raetihi. Cars, about one hundred of them, brought further men It was a wonderful example of the spirit and sympathy of the King Country people, and their desire to assist to the utmost. . A base camp was established at the Forks, eight miles up the Gorge and food was carried up there. Large fires were lit, and benzine tin s of hot tea, .were available throughout the day for the searchers as they arrived wet cold and weary.

With such a large number of men operating in little known bush, it impossible 'to ' present) over.'v,i /ig. Cases of parties working ever one anothers tracks did occur, but the

bush from the viaduct up to the Forks was scoured thoroughly! Above the Forks partie s *•’ < xperienced bushmen chiefly operand. Those organising the seanh have decided that these parties of local bushmen have more chance of finding Stanton than anyone. Accordingly, the volunteers who were out to-day have been allowed ’to return to their, homes to-night, and only bushmen will be out searching to-morrow. Many of these bushmen have been out practically since Sunday, and even their iron strength is giving out A CLUE. One party, led by Mr Berry, < Horopio, which came out of the bush to-night, brought a clue with it. These men were some of 80 searchers who went into the Mahuia Valley this morning. They followed the’ Mahjuia Stream up until they reached the spo where Graham, Harris and the girls were found. They picked up Addis and Stanton’s tracks from there, and traced them down, the tribuary of the Makatote until they came to a steep bluff, which jutted out into a stream. They could not pass around it, and had to go above the waterfalls, and when they picked up the trails again on the other side, there was entv cne set of footprints. It was then late in the afternoon, and as the party had to get out of tho hush to-night, no further search was possib'e. The party will travel into this bitiff a train to-mor-row morning and investigate fully. Nineteen men are remaining in the Makatote Gorge to-night.