THE MANUKA

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 74, 20 December 1929, Page 14

THE MANUKA

HULL NOW SUBMERGED CARGO COMING ASHORE By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, December 19. Lloyd’s surveyor, Mr. W. J. Crawford, and Mr. Haddon Smith, representing Lloyd’s, visited the wreck of the Manuka yesterday. She is now under water, except for the top of the after-mast and the derricks of the foremast. A heavy sejt was running. Great quantities of cargo and passengers’ luggage are coming ashore. The beaches are littered with lemons and onions, and luggage is reported to be coming ashore as far as seven miles south of the wreck. ' Mr. Smith states that if the Manuka had struck yesterday the passengers would have had no chance, as the heavy seas were pounding against the cliffs. Warnings have been issued to visitors to remove nothing, as everything is the joint property of the Union Company and the underwriters. Several loads are reported to have been removed, but prompt action secured their return. A constable at Owaka reports that he has found two of Mr. Murray Fuller’s valuable English pictures on the beach, one in good condition. Abandoned to the Underwriters. The vessel has been abandoned by the Union Company to the underwriters. The cargo underwriters will meet here this afternoon to decide whether the cargo will be auctioned, or salvage undertaken. It is expected that the hull underwriters will work in unison with the cargo underwriters. •The Customs Department has sent an officer to the wreck as receiver of wreckage, and all cargo will be taken by him, and if it is auctioned, an assessment will be made of the dutiable goods. Crew Grateful for Hospitality. The crew were paid off this morning to enable those who .live in the north to catch the train. Tbeir delegate, Mr. A. Blaker. said the men would never forget the hospitality of the people of Owaka and down the line to Dunedin. The assistance gjfTii by the Shipwreck Relief Society was wholly unexpected, and the men were overwhelmed by its generosity. Mr. E. Murray Fuller, who Jost a.large number of pictures by English painters when the Manuka went down, will leave by the ferry boat to-night for the scene of the wreck, in view of the possibility of some of the paintings being washed ashore.