LOST IN JUNGLE OF NEW GUINEA

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27752, 1 September 1955, Page 10

LOST IN JUNGLE OF NEW GUINEA

Search Continues For Christchurch Man FATHER TELEPHONES PORT MORESBY The search for Peter Millar, the 23-, year-old Christchurch man lost in the New Guinea jungle, about 20 miles from Pert Moresby, was intensified yesterday. Mr Millar was last seen on Sunday morning when he left a shooting party to hunt wild pig in virgin jungle between the Brown and Vanapa rivers. On Monday more than 100 natives and Europeans moved in to search a tract of jungle five miles long by three miles wide, and yesterday their number was increased to 300. Mr Millar, whose home is at 137 Knowles street, St. Albans, is known to be armed with an automatic shotgun, and had 25 rounds of ammunition when he left the others in the party. A few cartridge cases, similar to those which he was using, were found yesterday morning. His family's first information was the cable message in “The Press” yesterday morning. Mr Frank Millar, Peter’s father, said yesterday: “It came

as a bit of a shock, and I was at a loss to know whom to get in touch with in Port Moresby.” Just after 9 a.m. Mr Millar telephoned “The Press.” and spoke to Miss Betty Robinson, the day telephone receptionist, who suggested that he get in touch with the Chief Postmaster, Christchurch (Mr H. R. Pool). Mr Pool telephoned the Chief Postmaster. Wellington, and shortly afterwards Mr Millar had a call from the chief superintendent of tolls in Wellington, to tell him that the radio channel to Port Moresby would be open at midday, and to suggest that he should put in a call to the chief of police there. “Reception was not very good.” said Mr Millar, “but I spoke to a native sergeant of police who was most helpi ful." I “Every Hope of Being Found” The sergeant told him: “We are determined not to give up the search' until we find what happened to your son. There is every hope of his being found. It is common here for persons to get lost in the jungle, but they are found within a few days.” Further hopeful information came later in the day from a friend who was stationed in Rabaul during the war. "Ycu could live out in that jungle for months,” he told Mr Millar. “There is water and edible berries, and Peter may have met up with some of the natives in that district—they are rough, but friendly.” The search was the largest ever organised in the area, said a cable message from Port Moresby last evening The area where Mr Millar is lost lies between the Brown and Vanapa rivers. It is bounded on the east by a jeep track and on the west, through 30 miles of jungle and swamp, by the coast. No natives have lived in the district in living memory. Yesterday the president of the Port Moresby Aero - Club (Mi' Vince Sanders) flew over the area from dawn until 10 a.m., but reported no signs of Mr Millar. He is a non-smoker, and is thought to be without matches. “On Right Track” Superintendent Jim Palmer, who has taken personal command of the search, said yesterday that the finding of a number of 12-gauge cartridge cases similar to the ones which Mr Millar was using raised hopes that the search parties were on the right track. ; But after an intensive combing of ( the area there were still no signs ofi the lost man. “We have fanned men through this section on a front threequarters of a mile wide,” said Superintendent Palmer, “and wheeled them to cover all the jungle four miles west of the track and six miles north.” The searchers have been shouting as they moved through the jungle, and firing blank .303 cartridges to attract Mr Millar’s attention. One of the native searchers was himself lost on Tuesday, said Superintendent Palmer, and was picked up exhausted about lunchtime yesterday. Mr Millar left New Zealand with a friend in July last year for a working holiday in Australia. Afiei' some time there they decided to go to Port Moresby, where Mr Millar, an electrician, took a job in ap electrical business. He planned to leave New Guinea ' esterday on a cruise of the Pacific Islands, arriving back in New Zealand on Octdber 5. Mr MiUar is to be married next month to Miss Lois Arbuckle, of Hagley avenue a trainee nurse at the Christchurch Public Hospital.