THE LOSS OF THE TARARUA. The Story of Frank Denz. A THRILLING NARRATIVE. Sufferings of an Auckland Woman. CAPTAIN GARRARD STRIVING TO SAVE A BABY. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH, OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Dunedin, Thursday.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1380, 7 May 1881, Page 2

THE LOSS OF THE TARARUA. The Story of Frank Denz. A THRILLING NARRATIVE. Sufferings of an Auckland Woman. CAPTAIN GARRARD STRIVING TO SAVE A BABY. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH, OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Dunedin, Thursday.

Thb Star's Correspondent telegraphs from Wyndham to-day : — I have to thank the Rev. P. W. Fairolough, Wesleyan Minister, ef Invercargill, for the following. He adds: "The man's narrative was taken down from his own lips, and is in no way coloured. I merely arranged his utterances to make them intelligible." The itory of Frank Deuz, a seaman, it< as follows:— I married in Auckland two years and a-half ago. We had one child 15 months old. I persuaded my wife to visit Melbourne, the company letting me take her over at half-price. When she came on hoard, Captain G-arrard came forward and said to her, "I give you the other half of the fare, and you can buy a new dress with it." Poor erirl ! she never got it. When we got to Port Chalmers, my wife and Mary Kelly went to Dnnedin. I warned them carefully to come by the three o'clock train. I wi.»h to the Lord I had told them six o'clock ! The man who had been at the wheel before me relieved me for a few minutes to gel somft coffee. I took the coffee, and came oufc to drink it just as the ship struck. She was full of water almost at once. My wife, Mary Kelly, and another woman, who was naked, clung to me. The bade waters of the seas that broke over the hhip 3arried us right aft. The women all screamed at first, but were soon brave, and believed us when we said that there waR no danger. They were put iv the htnokintr-house, and covered. I put a rug and my jacket on my wife. Mary Kelly would not go into the house, but helped with the ropes, and seemed +o wish to encourage the men, but they wore not afraid. You would have thought to hear them swaar that they could not sink. I was not more afraid than the rest, but the wife kept chutring to me, and that made me weak. The captain was cross, and scolded me, but I could not push her out at such a time. I wish to God I had taken my chum's advice, and put her and the child in the f.e«ond mate's boat. Then I would not have to look for them on the beach. When the carpenter was ordered out of the boat for the mate to take charge, he said "Thank God, lam safe." The ship was the safest place then. If the wind had not come up, she would have bf>eu there yet. The men complained of one of the hands in the boat. He was afraid of getting wet, and kept looking for the seas and missing stroke. The captain had him shifted out. He al&o said, "I praise God I'm out of her." I was ordered to take his place. I was crying, as I could not bear leaving the wife and child. The captain was not cross then. He persuaded me, and held out his arms for the child. I gave her to him, and said, "' Now, my captain, you'll look after her, won't you?" He said, "Yes, Frank, I i will; bo sure of that." I tied the baby's hood on. This is it (holding up a little hood). 1 found it on the beach. I tied this hhawi (holding it up) round the wife, and lashed it on with two manilla ropes See how it is torn with washing off I would not take £50 for those two things. I had £19 and a watch. I gave them to her to make her feel safe, and so that she would have t-ome-i tiling if I was drowned. She cried out to the other woman, "Dou't be afraid! Frank will save ub ! He's going in the boat 1 ' Sho thought I could do anything poor girl. 1 think I hear her now. Our boat was 24 feet long, but it upset end over end, and not (sideways. That will fc>how you how rough the sea was. We all got ashore, but the boy who cleaned the brass on the ship. Ju>t befoie we upset the poor little chap said, " I believe it's through me <"he vessel struck, for I'm very unlucky." I daresay those on board thousrht it very hard that we did not come back, but they saw the fix we were in. I would have gone back to the wife if I had been t>ure of being lost. Perhaps I would not now, but all that day I would. Ineverpiayed so much in my life before. I prayed for help, and then ran again to the point to wee if there was a steamer coming from the Bluff. I saw when the sea broke away the side of the smoke-house, and the captain led the women forward, that he had my little girl in h.13 arms. When the cook came ashore, he told mo that Mary Kelly was washed off at the same time as himself, •and that he did his best to sa ve her, but could not. Dr. Campbell was setting the engineer's leg, and was washed off at the same time Long before dark alj_ the women were drowned, and all the children but my child. The captain was in the rigging holding her. There were also about forty men in the rigging. I kept my eye on them as it grew dark. The last thing I aaw was the captain holding ray little girl. lam sure he died with her in his arms, bub could not save her. No ! It was not to be. It was not to be." (And playing with the little blue hood that was hid girl's, he sobbed audibly.) The bodies which have lately been washed ashore, decomposed and unrecognisable, will be buried at once. — Herald.

'• What are you doing here ?" asked a policeman of a tramp, who was found curled up in a Fourth-street store the other day. " Laying in a store for a rainy day," was tho reply. " JSever kick a man when he is going down the hill." He may be on the upgrade to-morrow, and give you a racket which you will despise. The British Journal of Photograghy reports some very curioua experiments which have been made in photography by lightning. During a very violent thunderstorm a prepared plate -was exposed for about half an hour. The plate was afterwards found to have received several fairly distinct impressions of the surrounding objects. One very vivid flash of lightning, which struck a ohuroh tower distant about. 14,000 feet from the spot where the plate was exposed, gaye a wonderfully, distinct impression, considering that the time during which the plate was exposed to its effects did not, exceed the one five-thous-andth pwt of a second,