Missing Man Found; Unable To Walk Out

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31530, 18 November 1967, Page 1

Missing Man Found; Unable To Walk Out

Rescuers yesterday morning found Mr L. D. Jones, the Christchurch Teachers’ College student who has been missing in the Harper Pass area since 4.45 p.m. on Monday.

Mr Jones is very weak. It will take until late on Sunday to carry him out to the road at Aickens, near Otira.

A search party led by Constable R. T. Kennedy, of Christchurch, found the 23-year-old student at 8 a.m. Mr Jones was an hour’s walk

from Hut 4, on the south bank of the Taramakau River, about two hours tramp from the pass. Mr Jones was exhausted from more than 80 hours in the open during rain and snow.

Very Weak Acting-Inspector O. D. Wilkes, head of the Christchurch police search and rescue section, said last evening that it would take two days to carry Mr Jones out from Hut 4. Mr Jones was very weak after his ordeal, but was otherwise well. A party of 18 searchers are tn Hut 4 with Mr Jones, and they have ample food supplies. The chief ranger of the Arthur’s Pass National Park

(Mr P. Croft), assistant rangers and 10 other men we.e to cross the Taramakau River at Aickens at first light today to go to Hut 4. “It will be impossible to be in a position to start carrying Mr Jones out until 1 p.m. Unless horses can be used, he will not reach the road until Sunday,” said Mr Wilkes. Plenty of Liquid “We have consulted the medical superintendent of the Grey Hospital and other doctors, and they consider that it is best to carry Mr Jones out There is nothing physically wrong with him except that he is exhausted. They are pumping liquids into him in Hut 4.” Mr Wilkes said. He said that the weather seemed to preclude the use of a helicopter to take Mr Jones out even if one were available. Mr Jones’s condition was not of a nature to warrant risk to a helicopter.

The forecast in the area is for continuing fresh easterlies, low temperatures, and futher rain and snow. A slow improvement in the weather is expected.