THE RAIDER WOLF.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 June 1918, Page 4

THE RAIDER WOLF.

NEW ZEALAND VISITED. AN INTERESTING STORY FROM THE BLUFF, Bluff, June 25. Regarding the reported visitation of the German raider Wolff to the Dominion, there ia reasonable ground for belief in the truth of a paragraph that Was recently published in The Otago' Daily Times. The story was told that the German seamen on the raider, talking to prisoners on her homeward passage, that on on* occasion the Wolff acfsa)ly>ounded the South Island of New Zealand, coming down the West Coast, passing south of Stewart Island, and making her way to the north not many mu e s distant from each coast. : Ihis w accepted as correct at the Bluff, in «*ew of certain happenings in the vicinity of Stewart Island jn March, 1817. tj,, paragraph: already published goes on to state: "It is also said that thVshirMie in different ports was viewed from an aeroplane, and an excellent view was obtained of Otago harbor." The statement receives corroboration to some extent by the fact that in the early part of last year a Qutha farmer stated he had '*;,'".«!*. «Mch disappeared northwards. A circumstance which makes the correctness of the story a conviction with nautical people at the Bluff, is that on March Utk while steaming to the Mutton-bird Islands, which lie south-west of Stewart Island £LS?• n * fct «f. • oyater trawler picked up a white light at 9.30 p.m. denoted that another vessel wag ahead entering Codfish Island passage half a" mile away. The vessel was then a quarter of a mile in advance of the Dispatch, and appeared to come from the westward. This wag unusual. The mate navigatmg at the time drew the mastart attention to the light, which was also observed by all the members of the crew It was concluded that another trawler was also proceeding to Muttonbird Islands, though no effort was made to explain why it had come from the westward. The Dispatch gave chase to try and overhaul the vessel ahead, but the leading vessel rapidly drew ahead and disappeared. Later on communicating with Maoris at the islands, it was revealed that during the heavy atoms shortly after the steamer's 'arrival at the islands, they observed a searchlight playing on the mainland and Stewart Island for twenty minutes one night. There were no Government steamers equipped with searchlights in the south at that time On February 26th the raider operating off Colombo sank the British steamers Worcestershire, 7075 tons and Perseus, 6725 tons. A change of air being healthy for ocean raiders, she disappeared, and, no doubt, came soutii. ward. • The story of the German sailors seems a correct version of her whereabouts at the time when the cruisers, were hunting her in the Indian Ocean. Why she did not take toll of shipping hereabouts is beat known to her commander. (Perhaps he did not desire his whereabouts to be known atthe-time.