NEWS OF THE AURORA

THE ROSS SEA PARTY

SEVEN SURVIVORS RESCUED

THREE LIVES LOST

A wireless message was received yesterday from the s.sr Aurora, but it was. in cipher, the key to which...was probably in • the possession of the late Minister-of Marine,. Dr. M'Nab. Without the key, the message could 7iot be decoded, and a telegram was sent to Australia asking for the translation of the message, which it was assumed would , .be sent there also.

A reply from the Australian Prime Minister was received last night.as follows :—

Tlie message from Captain Davis reads as follows: '

The Aurora arrived at Cape Evans, all well, on January 10, and relieved the seven surviving members of the Shackleton Expedition—namely; Messrs. Stevens, Joyce, Cope, Wild, Richards, Gazo and Jack, who. were found all well.

I. regret to report that duringthe second year of the Expedition the Rev. A. R. Spencer Smith died of scurvy on the Barrier, on March 9, 1916, and Captain Mackintosh and Mr. .V. G. Hayward perished on May 8, 1916, being over- • taken by a. blizzard which broke up the sea ice over which they were , attempting ■ to cross from" Hut ■ 'Point to Capo Evans. . The Aurora left M'Mufdo Sound on January 19 and should arrive , at Wellington about February 10. The next-of-kin of Mr. Smith is his mother, who. resides at 51 Palace Street, Westminster, London; of . Captain Mackintosh, his wife, Ethel ' Indens, of Bedford, England; and of Mr. Hayward, his mother, EckImville, Connaught Road, Harlesden, London. The Ross Sea Party. I T be following were the members of the Ross Sea party of the expedition:— Aeneas A. Mackintosh, R.N.R. commanding party. A. Stevens, M.A., B.Sc, lecturer on geography in the University. of Glasgow, geologist and chief of the scientific staff. . Rev. A. R. Spencer Smith, 8.A., chaplain and photographer. J. L. Cope,' 8.A., M.8., Cambridge, surgeon. A. Keith Jack, M.Sc, of Brighton, victoria, physicist, and assistant biologist. R. W. Richards, of Ballarat, Victoria, physicist. Irvine 0. Gaze, of Melbourne, commissariat officer.. • Ernest Joyce, of Sydney, in charge of dogs. H. E. Wild, brother of Frank Wild (who went with the main body),' in charge of stores. • " V. G. Hayward, secretary. The Aurora, the second ship of Sir Ernest Shackleton's' Antarctic Expedition, reached M'Murdo Sound; kto in February, 110.5, under the command of Captain A. A. Mackintosh. The task of the Aurora was to establish a basein M'Murdo Sound and land a party, which ■ was to push southward across the Great Ice Barrier to meet Sir Ernest. Shaekleton's trans-continental party. Captain Mackintosh, with five companions, started on a preliminary sledging journey on March 11, 1915, and, for some reason that is not yet explained, no member of this party re-turned-to the base during the succeeding two months. On May 6 the Aurora wne swept out to , sea by a blizzard, leaving four men ashore at the base, and the vessel, commanded by Lieutenant Stenhouse in the absence of Captain Mackintosh, did not succeed in returning to the Sound. She drifted in the ice in the Ross Sea for many months, and when released, in a damaged condition, made her way to New Zealand] arriving at Port Chalmers early/in 1916. The- relief journey), could not be -undertaken till the winter had passed, and the Aurora . leftPort Chalmers for M'Murdo Sound en December 20 last. Evidently she has made a quick passage both ways. OFFICIAL RETICENCE IN AUSTRALIA. (Rec. February 5, 8.45 p.m.) Melbourne, February 5. The Minister of the Navy refuses to give any information regarding the Aurora. —Press Association.