THE WAIRARAPA WRECK

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 151, 27 June 1921, Page 2

THE WAIRARAPA WRECK

MONUMENT TO VICTIMS.

"I am very pleased to hear that it is proposed to erect a monument to the siiamory of those who were lost in the wreck of the s.s. Wairarapa, and will give all the information. I have in my .possession," writes Canon Haselden, of Auckland. "But the whole matter needs some consideration, or the be3t thing Will not be done. There were on board 250 soule^-125 were saved and 125 were drowned. Of the 125 lost the bodies of S3 were recovered, and +2 were never found. I have always believed that the 42 bodies lie in vary deep water some yards from the wreck, where there is very'long and big seaweed, which kept the bodies down. A year after the wreck an excursion went from Auckland with a large number of friends of the lost. I showed them all the< graves at the different burial places, and we held a service over the spot where I think the 42 bodies lie. Of the 83 bodies recovered, 21 were taken to Auckland for burial, and the remaining 62 are buried as follow :At Maori Bay, 43; Whangapoua, 14; Arid Island, 1; Haratonga, 1; Hatch Bay, 1; Beach, Whangapoua, 1; by Maoris, 1. The Union S.S. Co. have twice erected fences round tho graves at Maori Bay and Whangapoua. We found bodies 25 miles apart. I think the monument should be erected at Maori Bay, where the 43 bodies are buried. I have a complete burial register, but a large number of the bodies were not identified. This was'quite impossible in many cases. Even clothes with names on them did not prove identification, as I am sure that in the awful few minutes at midnight, when the passengers were awakened by the shock of the ship striking the cliff, they took one another's clothes. But I have the full and correct list of the names of the 125 lost, and they, I think, supply what is wanted for the monument, irrespective of tile particular spot where they were buried. For tan years after the wreck I every now and then had to write letters to supply information and settle difficulties. And I have all sorts of communications and information about the whole matter. With my list of the names of the lost I have the place from whioh they came. I have also some particulars of some very strange things ' whioh happened during the dreadful 21 days the rescue party Were at, the wreck."