PELORUS JACK NOT DEAD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 268, 22 March 1911, Page 5

PELORUS JACK NOT DEAD

REPORT FROM D'L'RVILLE ISLAND. By Telegraph. —Press Ansocisitiot. Wellington, Last Night. Tliis afternoon Air. Allport, Secretary for Marine, received a letter from Mr. (j. Webber, a settler at the French l'ass, in which he id that Messrs. Wells Bros., of D'l'rville Island, had found what the.v believed to be the carouse of Pelorus Jack. Mr. Webber, who has seen I'elorus .Jack many hundreds of times, was asked to identify the remains, and as a result his opinion was expressed that the color, size, and shape exactly correspond with what they had seen of the fish in the water. The length of the carcase is, they state, just one inch under, fourteen feet, and the girth between nine feet and ten feet. "I should say," says Mr. Webber, "that he has been dead for a week or ten days, and has been considerably bitten by sharks, probably after death."

The Department has sent instructions to take photographs of the fish and secure the skeleton till the Hinemoa can call for it. The Department is also requesting masters of passing vessels to ascertain if Pelorus Jack is frequenting his usual haunts. THE REPORT CONTRADICTED. "NEVER SO FRISKY." Nelson, Last Night. The Colonist is in the position to contradict the report as to the death of I'elorus Jack. Mr. W. T. Bond, of Nelson, who returned home by the Pa-, tcena to-day, states that he and others saw "Jack" in the water on Monday night, and that he followed the Pateena for miles. Mr. Bond has seen him many times, but never .saw him so frisky as he was on Monday night. ANOTHER REPORT. Wellington, Last Night. In reference to the report of a dead fish having been found, believed to be Pelorus Jack, it is stated by the officers of the Pateena, which arrived in Wellington to-night, that Pelorus Jack was stfen on Saturday afternoon, as usual, when the Pateena was on the passage from Nelson to Picton, and on Monday night the look-out man on the Pateena saw "Jack" accompanying the vessel from 0.20 p.m. till 0.50 p.m. Pelorus Jack was also seen by some of the passengers. This afternoon Pelorus Jack was not seen by anyone on the Pateena, but this is not unusual, as "Jack" has frequently been absent during the past few months.