LOST IN CAVES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22398, 20 April 1936, Page 8

LOST IN CAVES

PLIGHT OF TWO BOYS TRACED IN NIGHT SEARCH LOCALITY AT THREE KINGS Equipped with kerosene lanterns, electric torches and ropes, a party of about 45 Three Kings residents and three police constables combed the Three Kings Caves for two and a-half hours on Saturday night in search of two missing schoolboys. The boys were eventually located, none the worse for their unenviable experience, about 80 feet underground and about a quarter of a mile from the entrance of the cave. The lads were Richard Everard, aged 13, son of Mr. and Mrs. R. T. Everard, of 768 Mount Eden Road, and David Hodge, aged 11, son of Dr. Alexander and Mrs. Hodge, of 14 View Road, Mount Eden.

Approached from Landscape Road, the caves are reputed to extend nearly to Mount Albert, but people seldom i venture more than about a quarter of a mile underground owing to the diminishing width. There is a lab3'rinth of subsidiary caves and passages branching from the main passage. The two bo 3's had visited the caves several times before in search of Maori remains and curios and left home shortly before three o'clock on Saturday afternoon on another " expedition," as one of them termed it. Absence Causes Alarm When they did not return in the evening, Mr. Everard became alarmed and, after telephoning the police, organised a search party among the neighbours. Under the direction of Constable F. Belcher, of the Balmoral station, Constable A. Hodgens, of Mount Eden South, and Constable A. White, of Mount Roskill, the party was split into groups, two of the groups searching the rocky country in the vicinity of the caves; where a great deal of drainage tunnelling has been done lately, and the other party entering the cave. With water trickling from the walls and ceilings in many places, and with the height suddenly diminishing from 10ft. to about 3ft., elsewhere, the searchers were able to make only slow progress, but a systematic combing was proceeded with, about six of the searchers knowing the cave fairly well.

It was not until about 8.30 that Messrs. C. P. Hine and T. D. Savage, two Landscape Road residents, found the lads wrapped in overcoats and lying on the floor, nearly asleep, at the end of one of the main passages branching from the big cave. Neither of the boys appeared to be scared, and both looked rather sleepy. The spot where ihey were found was about 80ft. below the ground, a full quarter of an hour's walk from the entrance. School Poems Recited The boy Everard said later that about three-quarters of an hour after they entered the cave their kerosene lamp failed through lack of fuel. After groping about in the dark for some hours they came to a branch cave and decided it would be advisable to proceed no further and wait there until they were found. "We were rather frightened at first," he said, " but we knew that when we did not return for tea somebody would come and iook for us. We recited the most jolly schocl poems that we could think of to each other. The air was very musty and we became drowsy. We nearly fell asleep. It was very good to hear voices and see the gleam of the torches." Residents in the district say that it is surprising that children have not been lost in the caves before. The opinion is held by many that the entrance should be closed.