THE WARATAH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9677, 29 December 1909, Page 4

THE WARATAH.

The cable news a few days ago relates that a further effort is to be made, by Australian enterprise, to Jiscover the whereabouts of the missing Waratah. The opinion is strongly held by many sea captains that the vessel is t?till afloat, and they have contrived to so infect the generJ al public with their beliefs tint a j substantial sum ha 3 been raised in I Melbourne towards fitting out a second search expedition. 'lhe chief ground for the faith that is in those j who are convinced that the Waratah is still above water is the of any indication of wreckage. In reply to those who point to the fruitless quest of the Sabine, it is stated that her search was of a most inadequate description. Captain Mitchell, late ! of the Port Phillip sea pilot service, especially, that never swerved from the conviction of the extreme likelihood that the Waratah"s 300 passengers are still praying tor the succour from which the waste and unvisited places of a vast ocean are keeping them. Captain Mitchell furnishes a weighty answer to the fact that so many vessels have kept a look-out for the missing steamer to no purpose. He states that the course of the thirty-two ships mentioned may be divided into two sections or "roads," with an immense waste of unvisited water between them. With one .or two exceptions none of these steamers iig-zagged. They all kept to the regular ocean beats. Some of the tracks have unvisited spaces 60 and 70 miles wide and hundreds of miles long, between them, while between the two almost equal divisions there ia a length of 2,000 miles of open ocean, by 715 miles wide. The Sabine, it is shown, steamed across the 715 miles on an angle,'crossing in all 500 miles of this area. The action of the Sabine's captain in not j searching the five iblands comprising ' the Crozets group is sharply criticised by Captain who declares that the Waratah's passengers may have taken refuge at Hog Island, on which there is a provision depot. "Are we," he asks, "as Australians, and particularly as Victorians—natives of the State from which so many of this unlucky steamer's passengers hail—tg sit; down and be satisfied wittl SUeh a search'? Common humanity says 'No!' Duty says 'No!' The search male has been insufficient, and the time has come when efforts must be made here in Australia to fit i»ut an expedition to satisfy our consciences, and perhaps save those 300 poor suffering crea> lures, who have been drifting, and still may drift for months." A •ready answer to the stirring appeal I has been returned, and in the courfie iof a few weeks another search will jbe instituted, which, it is to be sincerely hoped will be sufficiently thorough to satisfy the last lingering suggestions of doubt.