CASTAWAYS ON ISLAND

Evening Star, Issue 20555, 6 August 1930, Page 9

CASTAWAYS ON ISLAND

HO WISH TO LEAVE PROVISIONED DV PASS!KG STEAMED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, August 5. Advices from Townsvilio state that the master of tho steamer Taipiug, from tli© East, discovered thirty-five castaways, including woman and children, on Bird Island, 800 miles from Thursday Island. They had sheltered there for a month, after being washed up in a ten-ton smack, and had lived on birds and fish. They were in need of fresh water, which was given to them by the Taiping. The castaways elected to remain on the island, and ivero given food and other comforts. There was no sign of them when the Taiping passed the island on the return trip. [Bird Island, so named from the large number of sea birds which nest there, is an extinct volcano two days’ steam from Thursday Island, and on the direct route to Manila. With a total coast lino of perhaps a mile and a-half, it rises to a height of about 800 ft in a perfect cone, covered with low bushes and scrubs. Passenger vessels in passing steam close in shore for the entertainment of passengers, and distress signals are fired to disturb the thousands of birds, which circle above tho island and fill tho air with their cries.]