A STRANGE STORY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1820, 24 November 1888, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY.

An English paper of September 27 gives the following details explaining a cable message published in the New Zealand papers a few weeks ago “An agentleman, named Murtagh, residing in Brooklyn, received a letter on the 11th inst. from one of the uninhabited islands of the South Sea group, Ojee, written by a friend of his named Captain Green, who was supposed to have been lost at sea in 1858, in a vessel commanded by him, called the Confederation. The letter, written : on a soiled leaf of a ship’s log, was dated July 1887, and had been put aboard a whaling barque which passed near the island at that time. The writer observes that no doubt all hands aboard the Confederation had been given up as lost. He then relates how the vessel foundered in a gale, after being nine weeks at sea, and how her crew, including himself and two women, having taken to the boats, after forty days, landed on the coral reefs of the Island of Ojee, there being no signs or habitation but an abundance of game, fish, fruits and water. No vessel came near the place until one evening in December 1862, when eight of the crew put off in a boat to intercept her. The weather being very stormy, they never returned to the island, and Captain Green thinks they were lost. He further states that the women became the wives of two of the remaining castaways, and that, although there had been several deaths on the island, the population at the time he wrote consisted of 12 persons, who felt quite contented. They were, however, badly in need of clothing. During the 30 years they had communicated from the island with only three vessels, and this letter had been four years written and ready to be sent by some ship. Captain Green adds that he is 68 years of age, and in good health.”

The dispute in McArthur and Co.’s (Auckland) boot shop has been finally sett ed, the Union not insisting upon payment of the full fine, and Cullen remains in their employ. A girl three years old, the daughter of William Qleeson, was drowned in the river Waiau, North Canterbury, about noon on Thursday, The will of Mr James Leslie, of Parnell, Auckland, who died the other day, shows that he bequeathed the sum of JSSOOO for the establishment and maintenance of an orphanage to be erected at Auckland, Orphans and destitute children of all races and creeds are to be admissible, but the inmates are to be educated in the doctrine of tbe Presbyterian Ohmcb.