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Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 July 1940, Page 8

C. MINES OFF DOMIN. TWO VESSELS LOST. Enemy mine sowing off the New Zealand coast by the German raider Wolf during the last war, and the sinking of two victims, are recalled by the loss of the Niagara. Seventy mines were laid on that occasion off the North Cape and Cape Farewell, the northern-most promontories of both islands, while the Wolf was in these waters between June 25 and 28, 1917. An unpretentious converted cargo steamer of 5809 tons, the Wolf was the first enemy vessel ever to enter Australian and New Zealand waters, and she caused a commercial and insurance stampede when she appeared in seas thought to be free from enemy action. She left Germany in November, 1916, and until her return to Kiel after 15 months she covered 64,000 miles, and was officially credited with sinking 135.000 tons of shipping. The Wolf laid minefields off Capetown. Colombo, Bombay. Singapore and the New Zealand and Australian coasts. She came to North Cape from Sunday Island, and. according to Mr Roy Alexander, radio operator on the Wairuna, which she sank 400 miles from New Zealand, who subsequently wrote his adventures as a prisoner on the Wolf, she stayed out of sight of land until nightfall, and between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. scattered 25 mines over a wide area.

For the next two days the Wolf steamed down the west coast, of the North Island, and at times was so close to the shore that the prisoners believed they could have swung ashore if given a chance. Nightfall was again awaited before minelaying began, and then between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. about 45 mines were scattered in a series of small fields, designed to block Cook Strait. One prisoner named Rees, who was second officer on the ill-fated Wairuna, jotted down on paper the laying of each mine. He became very ill, and was subsequently transhipped to a captured collier, which was wrecked on the Danish coast. His notes served to give the British authorites the approximate positions of the mines. Some, however, were not destroyed, and the Huddart-Parker intercolonial passenger steamer Wimmera, of 3022 tons, was mined off the North Cape on June 26, 1918, a year after the Wolf's visit to New Zealand. The explosion occurred at 5.15 a.m., as the vessel was proceeding from Auckland to Sydney carrying 66 passengers and a crew of 75. Of this complement of 141, a total of 27 lost their lives. A much earlier victim was the Commonwealth and Dominion Line’s steamer Port Kembla, bound, from Melbourne to London, via Wellington, which sank in 20 minutes off Farewell Spit, Nelson, on -September 18, 1917. after a tremendous explosion in the forehold. All on board were saved. Apart from produce for England, the Port Kembla carried the largest mail ever lost en route to New Zealand.