TRAGEDY OF 1881.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19805, 18 December 1929, Page 11

TRAGEDY OF 1881.

I WRECK OF TARARUA. I FORTY MILES FROM THE | MANUKA. i " ! The wrc k of the Manuka recall* a far distan* time when, at a point abo.-.t ' 40 mN«« South of the seen" of Monda;1 night's disaster, the Tararua. carrying j IS I people, was wrecked, over 130 losing , their live.-.. In the days when the Tara- , rua, a popular steamer, and noted for | fast passages, was on the coastal run, I there was no i'.gl.t at the dangerous j point where she came to grief, neither I was there a regulation ordering the use ( of lifebelts. A very different state of ! affairs obtains to-day. ! The* Tniuriia. of "70 tons, commanded by Captain Garrard, was wrecked on the ; rocks of Otara reef, just off Waipapapa point, on April 20th. bs>l. Of the ' peopl-' aboard!, only 20 reached land. ' The ship left Port Chalmers on April 2*th. with a general cargo, and * full '■ lomplement <>f passengers for Mel j bourne. The weather was fine during I the night, and Captain Garrard, just j before daylight in ihe morning after leaving Port Chalmers, adopted tinusual proc'dure of changing his course I from S.S.W.. to W.. but. by a slight | error of judgment, ho changed his coursi j too soon, so that the vo*sel was not i able to clear the rocks off Otara reel, | where she struck heavily. The coast- ! line there is low and there had been a mist lying over the land but the morni ing was fine, and the seas running high i when the Tararua struck just before 5 a.m. A Lonely Shore. About half a mile from a lonely, bleak shore, pounded incessantly by giant combers, the stout ship threatened to go to pieces beneath the feet o( 'he panic-stricken passengers, many of whom rushed the boats. But. backed by a crew under the best of discipline, Captain Garrard soon obtained order, and the command was given to lower a boot. With dismay Ihe people on the crowded decks saw this boat stove in and smashed from bow to stein against the side of the steamer. A second boat got, within a quarter of a mile from the shore, and one of the crew swam to land. He reached a settler's house no.I obtained a rider to take the news of the wreck to Wyndham, 3d miles away. Meanwhile, the people of Dunedin and Inverenrgill, hearing no news of the Tararua, were rilled with apprehension. The s.s. Hawen was sent to the J scene of the disaster, which had been reached about this time by a ketch from Bluff. These vessels rescued a boatful of people from the wreck, 'nit could do nothing to help those who crowded her decks. One boat had tried to reach land through the increasing fury of the breakers, and had been capsized, but, as all aboard it were selected swimmers, only one out of nine was drowned. There were two good boat-harbours within a few miles, where many of the passengers could have lauded from the ship's bouts, but these harbour, were unknown, and the settlers on the shore were not, at any stage, able to establish communication with those on the stricken steamer. Efforts at Rescue. An hour or two after mid-day the ship was breaking up. The Captain ordered all women and children to the fo'i'sle head and carried many of them to the bridge. In reply to many heartrending entreaties, he said. "I have now done all 1 can. There are no boats available now, but the tide will be low shortly, and T will do what I can." So great was the pressure against the ship's rail in one place that when the vessel rolled over on a wave, the rail snapped with a loud report accompanied by the shrieks of sixteen unfortunates who fell into the turmoil of the foam. Most of these were ! drowned. , From noon on the watchers on shore could see the others being washed off the wreck by waves. When darkness came only the bow of the ship was left whole, the Tararua huving broken amidships. At 7 p.m. the s.s. Kakanui came from Bluff, and as* her lights were seen a feeble cheer from those on the wreck I was heard. But the Kakanui could do nothing in the darkness where acres of foam seethed over the jagged reef surrounding the dim outline of tho Tararua. At 2.30 a.m. on Saturday, 30th. the watchers on shore heard a series of loud cracks, then n dreadful cry of terror and dismay. It was one sustained cry. and then —silence. Morning showed it to have been what nil expected, the silence of death, for not a vestige of the Tararua except a bare top-mast spar was visible above the waves.

VALUABLE PAINTINGS LOST. MR MURRAY FULLER'S COLLECTION, \ riHB PEESS SpacUl fSsrrlcO WELLINGTON, December 17. A ateward who brought in tea to Mr K. Murray Fuller, the well-known New Zealand painter, on board the Maunganui this morning, did not realise all that his words meant to the passenger whom he served when he said: ''l suppose you know the Manuka's sunk?" It was some moments before Mr Fuller realised their full significance himself Sonic months ago in England he selected pictures by famous present day British artists, and after showing about one-third of them in Melbourne some five or six weeks ago, consigned them by the Manuka for exhibition in the Wellington Art Gallery early in the New Year. Save for a hundred, which were sent direct to Wellington, the whole collection, valued at £25,000 is now lying in the water off Long Point. "Many of the painters are my personal friends." said Mr Fuller, "and helped mo make the selection. The pie tures were the best samples of their work. A number of them were hung in the Royal Academy this year, and some have not been exhibited before. They were all very beautifully framed and took nine months to collect.'' Among the pictures lost wore two oil* by Bir William Orpen, "Resting on the Somme. l!Ms," ami "Night." four oils and two water-colour* by the famous woman painter, Dame Laura, Knight, whose studies of stage life are so well known, oils by Bir George Clausen, Mr David Murray, and Arnesbv Brown. Possibly the best of Lnglish landscape painter's, 11. H. la Thatigue, had contributed two oils, "A Provencal Forecourt," and ".Sussex Meadows," and the New Zealand painter, .Sydney Thompson, was also represented. Harold Knight. Lui-y Kemp-W.-lch. and Hariy Watson wore other artists whose works had been gathered in to make a thoroughly representative collection of coe temporary British art. and there were also etchings by Brangwyn NVvinson, and Dame Laura Knight.