NO NEWS OF SOUTHERN CROSS

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3927, 6 April 1929, Page 3

NO NEWS OF SOUTHERN CROSS

A radio broadcast from 2BL Sydney at 1.2 a.im. 'this morning stated 'that there was no truth in the rumour that the Southern Cross had been found. „

The Warwin ’plane did apt reach I‘oflt George owing to adverse winds, but located 'a place 70 miles distant for future operations. The air liner Canberra, Which left Sydney in the) morning, arrived at Broken Hill at G. 15 pan. THE MISSING AIRMEN. PRESUMED LANDING PLAICE. BAD COUNTRY, HOSTILE BLACKS. Where it is presumed that the four missing airmen in tlpo Southern Cross ha,'ve # landed news conveys to those unacquainted with ((he locality but a faint impression of the perils and discomforts which the party will have undergone before they are rescued. The country Where they are presumed to have lauded is described by Mr. G. F. Parkes, of Auckland, who was in the region a few months ago. He says it is densely wooded and hilly. There arc also long, barren stretches, where little vegetation exists, and animal and feathered life is entirely absent. Apart from the risk of starvation (the fliers only took food sufficient for a few meals), another danger, and not a remote one, lies in the fact, that the natives of that portion of the continent are treacherous, and much more hostile to white men than those who inhabit other parts of Australia. Murders by the blacks on the north-west coast have been of frequent occurrence in recent years, the victims having included pearlers, cattlemen, and lonely prospectors. These blacks are tall and well-developed as a rule, many of them exceeding lift, in height.

The country has (been very little explored, and many of the natives have never seen a white man. Wyiidhalm is the port of shipment of large numbers of cattle for the Fremantle and the Eastern trade, and steamers specially fitted up call at regular intervals to receive llm cattle, driven in from the big stations outback. The areas of these stations are many hundreds of square miles, and the boundary riders disappear from civilisation for months at a time. Wyndham itself is an unimposing, ramshackle place, at the head of Cambridge Gulf, 263 miles by sea, south-west of Darwin, and the white population would barely reach 50 in number. A not uncommon sight some years ago was a manacled procession of blacks brought in by the police from the interior, charged with the crime of killing cattle.

The Forrest River and Drysdale River mission stations referred to in the cablegrams may belong to the Roman Catholic or Moravian missions, which have been established in the most out-of-the-way places in the far north. Years ago one such station was discovered on a most desolate part of the coast, far away from civilisation. To the west and south of the locality where the Southern Cross is supposed to have lauded no settlement of any kind exists. Derby, the principal port north of Port Hcdland, from which a West Australian Airways machine is reported to have left for Wyndham, is some hundreds of miles from the Drysdale River mission station, and the intervening country is extremely barren and inhospitable.