PLANE TO RESCUE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1934, Page 5

PLANE TO RESCUE

’ FOOD FOR MAROONED PARTY- | SNOWBOUND IN MOUNTAINS. , (Per Preta issociatipn-~ Copyright l .■ ... - DUNEDIN,'JuIy 7. ■!; A. reassuring message' dropped from a; plane at. Clark’s Junction this morning rdlieved fca-Ts that were, felt for the safety ‘of "miners ( and- a woman '' and child of,five, who-, were reported to be’ snow-bound in an old sod hut high up -in the Lammerin<x>r Range. Th e bers of the 1 party, are Mr Jenkins, - Mi's Jenkins, , their son, , and Mr Bob Lorimer, n}l of Dunedin. /’ ; Eight days ago an old miner, named Rodgers, iapticipating 1 a storm,' fruitlessly advised ...Jenkins to take Ida party to a .lower level; ,When> it was found lyestepday that ,:tlio party i.bad not •collected ' fhoir ( usual : stores at Clark s Junction, hiifried arrangements were made for a rescue LpartyV f (>r ** waa known thgt. there was! oxlly 24 hours’firing material in the . snow-bound hut, which is at'a'’4oooft. - levdl’ with 20ft, : of snow. - ■/' '■■■■

At 11 o’clock this morning the Aero Club despatched Flying-Officer Olson in a Waco plane with food supplies and firewood: -The camp was located ■and the party gave an »assurance of. their safety. Aheaty package of food and .wood was dropped attached to ah improvised parachute, the- plane returning to Clark’s Junction to pre* vent the dispatch i large rescue party, which .had assembled. 4 A. further development occurred oil’ Saturday night,. when a brother of Robert L’orj.mer; one. of the men who was thought to have been in the hut.i called on the president of the Otago •Aero Club, Mr H. L. Paterson, and announced that something mysterious had ' occurred. When: the aeroplane flew over at, one o’clock «n 'Saturday, the occupants saw only one man. a woman and : a 'child, 'and when this wfs considered, together with the fact that, the letter-from Lorimer , showed that he had been at Clark’s Junction last ’Friday week,,-itr. was raised tha« for the past week or , more' he. had been neither at Clark’s -Junction,- a s the raining party had imagined, nor at. the camp, but 'was somfwhere xn he* tWCCII. > ' Jt W.as learned that .fin June 29, Lorimer had come out to Clark’s Junction for stores, and;;h«d started back a8 A U .large -s#rcli ,party, was instituted and started out early this morning. A - though nothin c very definite ha ;; Been received yet;■ it is reported that Lorim,. bps been found end is-well, ex-cep for being u little frostbitten. It m burned that. heMiad been sheVtemig i n : a stilly somewhere, and' subsisting on ’the* food which lie was carrying ™ the camp when lie was' overtaken by. . the blizzard. .- - - _