HOPE NOW ABANDONED

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 291, 4 September 1931, Page 11

HOPE NOW ABANDONED

Lost Ruapehu Climber STANTON NOT FOUND “Miracle If Still Alive” ADDIS DIRECTS SEARCHERS Investigation This Morning Dominion Special Service. The Chateau, September 3. Practically no hope of finding the missing Ruapehu climber, Warwick Stanton, alive is now held out. He has now been lost for six days and five nights, and bushmen declare it would be a miracle if he were still living. The area in which it is known that he must be has been narrowed down to a stretch of a few miles, and as there were 500 men searching in it to-day it is improbable that if he were alive he would not have heard the cooees of some of them, and have answered.

Leaders of the search parties came Into The Chateau to-night and saw Addis. He has completely recovered and was able to give them a clear and definite description of the spot where he left Stanton. . As a result of this Information it is hoped to find this spot early to-morrow. Complete Collapse. Addis said, that after leaving the girls with Graham and Harris, he and Stanton followed a stream since ascertained to be a tributary of the. Makatote. All day they waded down through icy water. At 3.30 Stanton collapsed. Addis ■hid that he had fallen over three times and was utterly exhausted. Addis, although loath to do so, decided he would have to leave him and try to get help for the sake of the girls. He helped Stanton out of the stream and took him a few yards into the bush on the' left bank, where there was a log covered with lawyer and other vegetation. He left Stanton In a hollow on the opposite side of this log to the river. He would not be visible from the river, declared Addis. This point had not previously been known to the searchers, who were under the impression that Stanton had been left under a log facing the stream, and have accordingly been looking for him by wading down through the stream.

Addis was definitely able to describe the location of this spot. He stated that half an hour after he left Stanton he was so exhausted himself that he lay down for the night.

The following morning he waded down stream for two hours until he came, to some forks, where the water was running very fast. These forks are where the base camp was established last night He crossed here and proceeded for some distance down the left bank of the Makatote, where he met the party of searchers. According to his story, then, he left Stanton two. and a half hours' journey upstream from the forks. In his weak condition Addis could not have walked very fast, and bushmen consider from this that he must have left Stanton two miles upstream from the forks.

Party to Investigate this Morning. A party Intends working up this bank to-morrow morning, the men deploying and walking a few yards from each other, beating the bush, and in this way it is considered they cannot miss the spot. The opinion has been expressed that Stanton recovered after a spell, and when the sun broke through the clouds at 8.30 the following morning, which was the first time the sun had been seen since the party was lost, he would pick up his bearings and try to get back to the snowline again. Addis considers, however, that Stanton was in such a state that he could not recover. There is a feeling that he died during the night and that when the party finds the lawyer-covered'log Cn the left bank of the stream they will find his body under it. LIKE) A NIGHTMARE Masterton Girl’s Experiences /’WANDERED AIMLESSLY” Dominion Special Service. The Chateau, September 3. It ail seems like a nightmare now,” «aid Miss Esme Brockett, who was interviewed yesterday afternoon when she had awakened from 14 hours’ sleep. Miss Brockett was propped up in bed with pillows at her back and was just' finishing a three-course lunch. "We just wandered aimlessly on,” she ■aid-when questioned regarding her experiences. “We felt that even if we could not find our way out the searchers would find us. When the aeroplane came over yesterday ’that gave us hope W e did not discuss the chances of our getting out; we purposely kept off the subject. I somehow felt I couldn’t be bothered discussing it. Shivered All the Time. ‘‘We were cold all the time. I don't think we stopped shivering all the time we were up ' there,” Miss Brockett continued. "The cold was harder to bear than the hunger. Speaking for myself. I did not feel particularly hungry until I found food within reach. I really enjoyed the hot drink more than the food. "We spent part of the time that we were in the bush planning menus. A popular idea was to go right through the menu. Some of them even though! of- working back again. "Our clothes were soaking wet all the time we were out. We had no matches, so could not light a fire. One. boy did have some safety matches, but they were wet, and someone had some wax matches, but they were dropped while being passed to one of the boys in the darkness and were lost. Walting for Help. "On the second and third days we depended on getting out ourselves, but on the last we just waited for help. The first day one of the girls had a bet with a boy that we would get in before midnight. I think he only did it to keep her spirits up. At no time though, did wo think that we would neither find our way out nor be found; or if anyone felt that we would not they did not mention it. I felt confident my■elf.

"The weather was bad all the time wo were out. First it would rain, then it would snow, and then it would hail. The second night out we slept under trees, and on the third night Graham ■cade a sort of shelter, but he made it in darkness and avery time we moved it fell to piece#.”