STILL NO TRACE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 14 January 1928, Page 7

STILL NO TRACE

STEAMERS' REPORTS AEROPLANE NOT SIGHTED (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, TTiia Day. All vessels in the strait on Tuesday night have reported,' and though some of them Raw the Kaiwarra none observed the flares reported by her. All steamers in the Tasman Sea have also now reported,, and none saw the aviators. None of the search parties, land or marine, have found traces so far. .\L4XWELL~CLAIM WELLINGTON, TTTis Day. The following statement was issued by.the Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Office from the jiostmaster at Wanganni :-r"William Henry Winter, tablet porter, of Maxwell declares. "I Was at my residence, about two miles from the sea, /at Maxwell railway on 10th January. I saw an aeroplane for two or three minutes, losing sight of it • at 8.30 p.m. by my watch, which was correct. My wife and three children also saw the plane. It was some distance out to sea, and appeared as a dark streak, .travelling fast; and was very clear against the bright sky when first seen, the sun having set veiy shortly before. It was heading for about Paekakariki, , and we lost sight of it as it passed a background of dark clouds. We have seen aeroplanes pass our place both ways on former occasions, but always nearer than this one." WEST COAST REPORTS : WESTPORT, This Day. , A report having been received that .- something resembling wreckage was ':.'■ floating in the ,sea near Cape Foulwind and that smoke was rising from the • Steeples, Mr Curtis, secretary and manager of the Westporfc Harbour Board, and Captain Tointon, assistant Harbourmaster, investigated with a steam launch, but all they found was a mass of floating kelp and no sign of a flre. Reports that the 'plane had been seen from Denniston Tauranga Bay, and Karamea, were also investigated, without result. "',.. • ' : BELIED OF ARAHURA STEWARDS WELLINGTON, This, Day. Four stewards of the steamer Arahura remain unshaken in their belief'that they saw a light of ah aeroplane on Tuesday night at 11.13. They regard IE as the : exhaust from the engine and say they kept it imder observation for three minutes. They could hear nothing, but v say, the/noise on a steamer of the size of the'Arahuw was sufficient to drown the noise of a plane as distant as this one, ■which (they estimate to be probably eight miles. The light movetd from'a point ahead of the Arahura to a point '; astern and could not possibly have been t"he light of a scow on account of the ", speed of the movement. U