MAN MISSING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 June 1939, Page 6

MAN MISSING

WELL-KNOWN KAIPARORO RESIDENT DISAPPEARS ON MONDAY AFTERNOON. EXTENSIVE SEARCH IN PROGRESS. Fears are entertained for the safety of Air Alfred Falkner, a well-known resident of Kaiparoro who was last seen on his farm at about 3 o’clock on Monday afternoon. Air Falkner is 84 years of age, but is extremely active. On Monday afternoon, it appears. Mr Falkner was walking over his farm in company with his manager, Mr F. Schormann, who, as he had to proceed a considerable distance further, advised Mr Falkner to go back to his son, who was fencing on another part % of the property. Mr Schormann then continued on his way but Mr Falkner did not put in an appearance at the place where his son was working. The son returned home to see if his father was there and immediately it was known that he was missing a search was organised. A party of seventeen men scoured the farm on Monday night until 1.30 a.m. yesterday, but without finding any trace of the missing man. The area in which he disappeared, known as the bush section, is fairly rough country. The search was continued yesterday with renewed vigour, over a hundred persons taking part, under the direction of Constable A. McCowan, of Eketahuna. The weather conditions yesterday were atrocious, hail, sleet, snow and rain showers, accompanied by a bitterly cold wind sweeping the countryside. As Mr Falkner is a great walker and thinks nothing of walking a distance of eight miles, having a cup of tea and returning again, it is thought there is a possibility that he has reached the main highway and 'got picked up by a car and perhaps suffered a loss of memory. It is considered extremelj’ doubtful if he could have survived the night if he was exposed to the elements. Mr Falkner has resided in the Kaiparoro district for nearly fifty years, taking up a bush section there before there were any roads. As he is a mechanical and civil engineer and a draughtsman by profession, he was responsible for laying out most of the roads and designing most of the bridges in the Kaiparoro district. He arrived in New Zealand in 1877 and worked for the Public Works Department as a draughtsman and later as chief draughtsman for the Manawatu Railway Company, in which capacity he supervised the erection of most of the bridges on the Manawatu line. He claims to have been the first resident of the suburb of Kilbirnie, Wellington and can recall the occasion on which the toll-gate at Kaiwarra was forcibly removed. On taking up his farm at Kaiparoro he established sawmills and did much to assist settlement in the district. The search is being continued today.