Spontaneous Help

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30176, 6 July 1963, Page 10

Spontaneous Help

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, July 5. Tributes to the men and women who volunteered their skills, time, experience, knowledge and equipment unasked in the search for the missing N.A.C. Skyliner were made tonight by the field search controller, Mr B. Spring-Rice, of the Civil Aviation Administration, Auckland. Mr Spring-Rice, w.to has himself worked virtually nonstop round 'the clock since Wednesday controlling search and rescue work from a quarry at the tiny settlement of Gordon in the foothills of the Kaimai range, said the response to the emergency was fantastic.

More than 200 men, including 170 searchers who combed the huge area of heavilybushed and broken peaks, were involved.

Behind the scenes the housewives in the district were preparing meals at any hour and providing dry clothes and billets for men without accommodation “Many of the local men. nearly all experienced bushmen. were invaluable in the search.” said Mr Spring-Rice “We tried to use their knowledge by placing at least one of them in every search party Without their help this task would have proved much more difficult

“We were really overwhelmed by the response and had only to ask for something. such as chain saws, axes and slashers, and it was provided immediately. The actual turn-out of men was fmtastac ” Mr Spring-Rice said he wished to thank, in particular, the men who had worked so well in the background providing essential services such as the Thames Valley Electric Power Board and Post Office linesmen, the Piako County Council traffic officers, police, soldiers, St John Ambulance men and the Air Force,