EAST COAST MYSTERY.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 August 1920, Page 5

EAST COAST MYSTERY.

THE STORY NOT SUPPORTED. SEA CAPTAIN'S OPINION, By leleeraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. Captain Norton, of the Monowai, reports that he passed the spot of the reported wreck off Tolaga Bay between 1 and 2 p.m. on Sunday, when the weather was clear. He saw no sign of the wreck or wreckage. At 2 p.m. ho was only 2| miles off the shore, and must have seen the wreck had there been one, The wind at the time was S.S.W., which would have driven, at any rate, some wreckage out to sea into the track of the Monowai. He further pointed out that there were no outlying dangers more than a mile from land at that particular spot. He said the Kia Ora was forced to leave Tolaga Bay on Saturday owing to heavy weather, and he was of opinion that the people on shore who reported the wreck must actually have seen- the Kia Ora standing up and down the coast.

FRUITLESS SEARCHES. NO TRACE OF WRECKAGE. Gisborne, August 23. There is no further information so far as to the identity of the vessel seen on Puatae Rocks yester.day. Men from a station and a party from Tolaga • Bay have gone out to search the beaches.. It was owing to the absence of telephone facilities on Sunday that the Grahams were unable to report the incident earlier. The postmaster at Tolaga Bay reports that a party which went out from Rototahi yesterday saw on the reef a big vessel with two masts. There was no sign of a funnel. The vessel was about five miles off, and a heavy surf was breaking all over her. The party returned to the shore in the evening and it was then found that the vessel had drifted about two miles further in. There was no light or any sign of life on board. Up till last night no wreckage had come ashore. The position of the vessel i# between Rototahi and Puatae, about eight miles south of Tolaga Bay and two miles north of Gable End foreland. Parties went out at daylight this morning, but have not returned.

The Poherua, returned to port at 10 o'clock without being able to throw further light on the reported wreck. She arrived off Gable End foreland at 2 a.m. and stood by till after 0 a.m. The steamers Putiki, from Hicks' Bay, and Tiroa, from'Gisborne, were then in the locality making a close inspection of the coast line, but up to the time thp Poherua left apparently had discovered nothing. Rotatahi Station reports that the men who went to the beach early this morning have returned without finding any (.race of wreckage on the beach or ob\aining any sight of the vessel that was visible yesterday. This morning's investigations by parties from Tologa Ray and neighboring stations disclose absolutely no trace of dny wreckage on the coast and the opinion is firmly held by local shipping authorities that a mistake has arisen. Auckland, August, 23. The Arahura, which arrived at noon, saw nothing of the wreck. EYE-WITNESSES POSITIVE. NOT A MIRAGE, BUT A VESSEL-, Gisborne, August 23. Messrs. S. M'Crae and E. Williams, the two men who reported the .supposed wreck, telephoned this afternoon expressing the positive opinion that the object sighted was not a mirage, but a ves- ■ sel in distress. It was also seen by Mr, Graham, manager of Rototahi Station, ;md his son through'binoculars.

The vessel appeared to be about five miles out, and the Arahura on her way to Auckland passed between the derelict and the shore. The weather then was misty and the wreck could not be discerned from the shore, but the haze afterwards lifted and the vessel could be seen quite distinctly, lying very low in the water.