BUSHMEN’S SKILL

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

BUSHMEN’S SKILL

Superhuman Efforts Of Searchers NOVICES AMAZED Dominion Special Service. .. The Chateau, September 3. The search for Stanton has been carried out with almost superhuman vigour under conditions almost unbelievably difficult. Every searcher who came in spoke with amazement and admiration of the prow ess of the bushfellows and sawmill hands, whose methods of hacking a parth through dense undergrowth were watched by novices with astonishment.

"The bush we went through was simply hellish,” said a searcher who returned to-day after spending a day and two nights in the bush. “All you can do is to fall forward and make an opening in tbe tangled scrub with your body. Only a powerful man in physical trim can keep it up for more than an hour or two, but these busbmen strode through the awful stuff at such a terrific pace that I and the cithers could not keep up with them. When they used slashers, but that method was too slow for them. When it _ was a case of making haste to a certain spot they simply floundered through at an astonishing rate. It was absolutely uncanny.” The bushmen who bore the brunt of the search for Stanton were all picked men. In some cases volunteers who

offered to accompany them were refused permission to go as they could not possibly keep the pace. Several parties slept out in the bush the last two nights. No one is cleverer at making a bush camp than these handy foresters. The method is to cut down a birch tree, split it up, and lay the rude planks side by side to make a rough wooden floor to keep out the damp. Four posts driven into, the ground suspend a blanket as a roof. A good fire is made to dry their, clothes before going to sleep, and the men say they keep dry and warm all night. “If anyone can bring Stanton in it will be these men, who know the bush as they know their gardens,” said the leader of one of the search parties yesterday. “The alpinist is the man for the snows, but give me these bushmen on the lower levels. It does one good to see them taking the country in their stride.”

SEARCHERS ASSEMBLE ■Remarkable Scenes DISCOVERY OF A CLUE Dominion Special Service. The Chateau, September 3. Remarkable scenes were witnessed at Petersen’s mill, a few chains below the Makatote railway viaduct, in the early hours of this morning, when several hundred men assembled and went into the bush to join in the search for Warwick Stanton. At 3.45 a.m. the Auckland express slopped just -south of the viaduct and dronned 167 men from Taumarunui. Shortly afterward a goods train arrived bringing men from Ohakune and Raetihi. About one hundred cars brought further men. X. It was a wonderful example of the spirit and sympathy of King Country people and their desire to assist to the utmost.

A base camp was established at the forks, eight miles up the gorge, and food was carried up there. Large fires were lit, and quantities of hot tea were available throughout the day for searchers, as they arrived, wet, cold, and weary. With such a large number of men operating in little-known bush, it was impossible to prevent overlapping. Cases of parties working over one another’s tracks did occur, but the bush from the viaduct up to the forks was scoured thoroughly. Above the forks parties of experienced bushmen chiefly operated. Those organising the search have decided that these parties of local bushmen have more chance of finding Stanton than anyone. Accordingly the volunteers who were out to-day have been allowed to return to their homes to-night, and only bushmen will be out searching to-mor-row. Many of these bushmen have been out practically since Sunday, and even tbeir iron strength is giving out. One party, led by Mr. Berry, of Horopito, which came out of the bush to-night, brought a clue with it. These men were some of the 80 searchers who went into the Mahuia Valley this morning. They followed the Mahuia stream up until they reached the spot where Graham, Harris and the girls were found. They picked up Addis’s and Stanton’s tracks from there, and traced them down a tributary of the Makatote until they came to a steep bluff which jutted out into the stream. They could not pass around it, and had to go above the waterfalls, and when they picked up the trails again on the other side there was only one set of footprints. It was then late in the afternoon, and as the party had to get out of the bush to-night no further search was possible. A party will travel in to this bluff again to-morrow morning to investigate fully. Nineteen men are remaining in the Makatote gorge to-night. . UNFOUNDED REPORT Yesterday’s Message from Erua FALSE HOPES RAISED A message was received from Erua late yesterday afternoon stating that Stanton had been found alive. _ The apparently good news spread quickly, but some little time later an official announcement stated that the report could not be confirmed. _________

Allotment holders in Britain can sell their produce to the value of 3/4 a day without affecting their unemployment pay, according to a recent statement made by LX. Addison Minister of Agriculture.