IN DIRE STRAITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21999, 4 January 1935, Page 12

IN DIRE STRAITS

TELEGRAPH WIRE CUT ' TWO EXHAUSTED MEN The bald report received by th» Australian Postm aster-General's Department in Perth lately that telegraph communication between Broome and Derby was interrupted for a considerable time gives no hint of the human suffering that led to the hreakdown. Early on Sunday, December 23, the Broome-Derby service was interrupted, but the break was not discovered unci! 9 a.m. the next day. Investigation by a mechanic sent from Broome showed that an open circuit fault had developed about 89 miles north-east of Broome.

The mechanic reported that the line had been cut by a man :named Cameron, who was walking from Brooms to Darwin. He suffered from heat, hunger and thirst, becoming so exhausted that at last he cut the telegraph wire in the hope that a repair party would find him b«fore it was tod late. , I Mr. Cameron told the mechanic that ahead of him was anothur man ia great distress. The mechanic, after attending to Mr. Cameron, went in search of the other tramjxr, and found him feebly scraping the sand in an effort to get down to watttr. Both xnea were taken back to civilisation, and were soon reported to be in satisfactory health again.