THOROUGH SEARCH OF THE NORTH COAST.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 118, 14 November 1902, Page 6

THOROUGH SEARCH OF THE NORTH COAST.

THE WORST FEARED. [BY TELKGBAPH— PBBS3 ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, -23th November. Newa comes from Mangonui at 6 o'clock this evening that Constable Bowman, who started from Hohouraj reports thoroughly searching the coast from Parengarenga to Hohoura for those still jnissing from the Elingamite. He found (absolutely no trace of the missing boat ur raft, or, indeed, wreckage of any description. The whole of the coast from Cape Maria Van Diemen to Hohoura has now 'been thoroughly searched without success. !At Hohoura they have seen nothiirg as yet of the Omapere, the Penguin, or the Sterling. , A resident here, who knows the West Coast thoroughly, thinks it possible that both boat and raft may have landed on a long and almost uninhabited eightymile stretch between Cape Maria and Ahipara. The coast is one' stretch of endless sandhills, and travelling is next to impossible without a guide. The natives, who, are on the look-out here, will, in the event of the survivors land- i ing, no doubt come quickly to their assistance. . > ,' From what is now known, should they not have fallen, in with a passing sailing vessel or succeeded in making the sand •wastes of the West Coast, their fate seems only too certain. The three bodies brought to Awanui by the Greyhound are to be buried there — a permanent memorial in the little village churchyard of the wreck of the unfortunate Elingamite. GISBORNE 1 , This Day. The steamer Torganten, which has arrived here from. Newcastle, passed Three Kings at 1 a.m. on Tuesday, but saw neither sign of wreckage nor the missing boat or raft. The weather was very foggy, and she got just one glimpse of the Van Diemen light.