Will he a Miracle if Stanton is Found Alive Addis Tells Why He Left Stanton

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6645, 4 September 1931, Page 7

Will he a Miracle if Stanton is Found Alive

Addis Tells Why He Left Stanton

Lost for Six Days and Five "Nights ' Leaders of Parties Confer with Addis Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. Practically no hope of finding Stanton alive is now field out. Ho has now boon lost six days and five nights and bushmen declare it would be a miracle if fie were found alive. The area in which it is known fie must be has been narrowed down to an area of a few miles and as there are 500 men searching it to-day it is improbable that if fie were' alive he would not have heard the cooees of some of them and have , answered. The leaders of the search parties came into the Chateau to-night and saw Harold Addis. He was completely recovered and was able to give them a clear and definite description of where he left Stanton. As a result of this information it is hoped to find this spot early to-morrow. ’

GIVES DEFINITE PARTICULARS LARGE PARTY WILL WORK THE STREAM TO-DAY Per Press Association. THE CHATEAU, Last Night. Addis, speaking to tko party leaders, said that after leaving the girls with Graham and Harris he and Stanton followed the stream since ascertained to be a tributary of the Makatote. All day they waded down through icy water. At 3.30 Stanton collapsed. Addis said he had fallen over three times and was utterly exhausted. Addis, although loath to do so, decided he would have to leave him and try to get help for the sake of the girls. He helped Stanton out of tihe stream and took him a few yards into the bush on the left bank, where there was a log covered with lawyer and other vegetation. Ho left Stanton in a hollow on the opposite side of this log to the river. He would not be visible from the river, declared Addis. This "point had not previously been known to the searchers, who were under the impression that Stanton had been left under a log facing the stream and have accordingly been looking for him by wading down through the stream. Addis was definitely able to describe tho location of this spot. He stated that half an hour after he left Stanton he was so exhausted himself that he lay down for the night. The following morning he waded downstream for two hours until he came to some forks where the water was running very fast. These forks are where the base camp was established last night. He crossed here and proceeded for some distance down the left bank of the Makatote, where ho met the party of searchers. According to his story, then, he had left Stanton two and a half hours’ journey upstream from tho forks. In his weak condition Addis could not have walked very fast, and the bushmen consider from this that he must have left Stanton two miles upstream from the forks. Tho party intends working up this bank to-morrow morning, the men deploying and walking a few yards from each other, beating the bush, and in this way it is considered they cannot miss the spot. The opinion has been expressed that Stanton recovered after a spell and, when the sun broke through tho clouds at 8.30 the following morning, which was the first time it had been seen since the party was lost, ho would pick up his bearings and try to get back to the snowline again. Addis considers, however, that Stanton was in such a state that he could not recover. There is a feeling that he died during the night, and that when the party finds a lawyer-covered log on tho left bank of the stream they will find his body under it.