WIRELESS IN SOUTH PACIFIC.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1712, 31 December 1919, Page 5

WIRELESS IN SOUTH PACIFIC.

FRENCH ENTERPRISE. Per Press Association. Ac. 50. Wireless expcrirn'Titation is tho reason for tlio visit to Auckland of the small war sloop Aldebaran, which arrived from Melbourne last evening to replenish her bunkers. She is one of a class of (>oat built largely during the early days of the war, other examplesoi the same type being the minesweepers Marguerite, Geranium, and Mallow, which visited these waters some time ago. In spite of the tricolour that she carries, the Aldebaran saw the light, in a British shipyard beside British ships. After three* years of strenuous war services, her errand is now one of peace and commercial development, bet; immediate .task tiding to test the practicability of establishing a wireless staion at Antipodes Island, in the far South Pacific. She carries an expert in win-less telegraphy, who is to superintend the experiments.

The visitors do not expect to be in that region of the world very long, but will return to Auckland to dock. This port will he their headquarters for a time, as they go to Noumea, then to various places in tie- New < uledonian group, and then _to Tahiti. They expect; to spend the remainder of their term of commission, about twa years, in making a comprehensive tour of thp Freneli possessions. The one hundred and more mm in the vessel ,are under the command ol M. de Capitainc do Corvette Gbaud, Legion rl’Honneur and Croix de. Guerre. This gallant gentlentan has but recently taken charge of the Aldebaran, being fresh fiom deeds of daring in the fleet in charge of the torpedo boat Javeline.