MESSAGE FROM THE SEA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10150, 21 December 1910, Page 5

MESSAGE FROM THE SEA.

- - CONCERNING THE* ILL-FATED DUCO. IS IT A HOAX? B}i Tete<)ra-ph—F»m Association. CHRIS'iCHURCH, Last Night. iv is reported that a bottle has been found on the beach near Lake Ellesriiere, containing a message purporting to come from the lost steamer Duco, stating that seven survivors got ashore at tne Auckland Islands. The police are seeking fur-, ther particulars. LATER. CHRISTCHUROH. Last Night. At an early hour this morning the constable at Soutbbridge reported j to the police authorities that a i Maori named John Puck had found a bottle on the beach containing the following message:— "Auckland Island, Sept. 21st, 1910.—Engine broke down; landed hero; no food; living on penguin eggs; seven of us saved; for God's sake help us. The rest are buried on the island. We will soon pass out.- (Signed) PETER PETERSEN, s.s. Duco." The constable at Southbridge has been instructed, to. obtain possession of the message and forward it to this city. Considerably doubt is | "thrown on the authenticity of the : above message, as the Duco was lost on her way to tho Chafliam Islands from Wellington, and was reported missing on October 6th, 1909, and the finding of the Court of Inquiry was given on November 26th, 1909. It is questioned whether a bottle placed in the sea'at the Auckland Islands on the date given in the message would have-been brought to the coast of the South Island in the time. , ... The Government steamer visits the Island periodically, and if there had been any survivors from tiie Duco on the Aucklands they would have been discovered long before this. DOUBT IN~WELLINGTON. B\l Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. In reference to the telegram from Christchurch stating that a bottle has been found on the beach near Lake Ellesmere, purporting to come from the survivors.of the steamer Duco on the Auckland Islands, the Marine Department states that those islands have been visited three tunes <ince the loss o fthe Duco, the last occasion being three weeks ago, ■when- the Amoknra made a search and visited the depot, finding no trace of castaways.