No Sign of Missing Deer-stalkers

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 132, 7 June 1939, Page 6

No Sign of Missing Deer-stalkers

Concern Growing in Levin FIRST SEARCH PARTY RETURNS EMPTY-HANDED From Our Own Correspondent. LEVIN, Last Night. Concern is growing for the safety of Francis Corrison Swanwick, aged 29, and Herbert Pickering, aged 20, both single, of Levin, who left on a deerstalking expedition from the Te Matawai Hut in the Tararua Ranges behind Levin, on Sunday morning and who have not yet returned. Both men left their sleeping equipment in the hut and had only enough food for the day. The missing men have now spent two nights and three days in the open without sleeping bags or tents. When the young men failed to return to the hut on Sunday night as was their stated intention, a party of three members of the Manawatu Tramping Club and two members of the Levin-Waio-pehu Club under Mr. R. Andrew Fuller, of Palmerston North, remained in the ranges another day in order to make a search. They returned shortly after 3 p.m. to-day and reported they had found no trace of the two stalkers. Leaving the hut at about 8.30 a.m. on Monday the searchers proceeded back along the ridge to the summit of Mt. Arete on the main back range, thus traversing the ground and the spot where the young men were last seen on Sunday at noon. They were then skinning a deer at the headwaters of the Waingawa River. Thick mist and heavy rain reduced visibility to 50 feet and made a thorough search impossible, with the result that the party returned to the hut. When they left at 7 a.m. today for the eight-hour trip from the but to Levin the stalkers’ equipment was still in the hut which definitely establishes the ;’act that they are in difficulties. Having been two nights and three days in the open the early theory that the men had lost their bearings and were waiting for the weather to clear, has been practically discarded. Mr. Swanwick is very familiar with the contour of the tujsock country in which they were last seen and for that reason it is felt they would have found the hut again on Monday at the latest, in preference to facing the hardships which the cold weather and lack of food would cause. The belief is gaining ground among those who have been connected with the pair on previous expeditions, that a mishap has befallen one of them in which case they would hardly separate, unless as a last resort, bui wait until assistance arrived. According to the party of searc) era who came out of the hills to-day, there is a very cold wind blowing in the ranges and members of the party couid not stand still for even a few minutes without being chilled to the bone. At 6 o ’clock to-night a party of members of the Levin-Waiopehu Tramping Club, Messrs N. M. Thomson (leader;, A. Hayward, T. A. Kerslake, W. Harr.u, C. Wilkinson and R. Webb, lefl Levi n for the Te Matawai Hut to commence a further search. A second party is to leave to-morrow, taking with them the Tararua Tramping Club’s stretcher which is specially designed to cope with mountaineering casualties. Should no word of the missing men bo received, arrangements for additional reinforcements will be made immediately.