DOCUMENT BURIED IN BOTTLE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21727, 9 March 1936, Page 12

DOCUMENT BURIED IN BOTTLE

-—♦ —- SOVEREIGNTY OVER PORT PEGASUS COPY OF PROCLAMATION SOUGHT fI'HNoS ASSOCIATION TCCKOHAM.) INVERCARGILL, March 8. A search for a copy of the proclamation declaring British sovereignty over Port Pegasus, Stewart, Island, and now supposedly buried in a bottle, is to be made next week. H.M.S. Dunedin, which has been at Bluff for over a week, leaves for Port Pegasus to-niorrow morning, and during the ship’s stay there Mr T. Lindsay Buick, of the Turnbull Library, Wellington, will search for the document. Captain Nias, commander of H.M.S. Herald, read the proclamation in June, 1840. One copy was left by the captain in a bottle which he buried at a spot described in the ship’s log. Mr Buick has extracts from the log, and he hopes from these directions to find the document. The directions contained in H.M.S. Herald’s log are not very clear and difficulty will probably be experienced in finding the bottle. It is buried on an island which becomes a peninsula at low water. The exact place where the bottle is buried is not known, and the fact that the bays and inlgts of Port Pegasus in many instances cari’y more than one name will add to the difficulties of the search.