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New Zealand Mail, Issue 245, 20 May 1876, Page 13

H.M.S. Nymph was to have left Auckland on Sunday for the Auckland Islands, with the intention of touching only at the Bluff on the way. It is a long while since any vessel has visited the Auckland Islands, and in ordinary course the Nympli is none too soon in making a call there. But there is a specially pressing necessity fox* this present visit, on account of the impression which has grown up in Sydney that possibly the Strathnaver may have been wrecked there, and some of her passengers be yet living on the islands. The Sydney Government recently telegraphed to the Premier for information about the islands, mentioning the impression to which we have referred, and we believe that through the Governor a representation on the subject was made to the captain of the Nymph, who was, however, already under orders to go to the islands. We should be glad indeed to find the anticipations prevalent in Sydney verified, but we fear there is little hope. In connection with the missing vessel a very strange tale was told in Wellington a few weeks since. A man named Thomas Hubbard, formerly a messenger at the Government Buildings, but a sailor by profession, went to Sydney from Wellington in the Strathnaver. His statement, on a recent visit he paid to Wellington, was that he and the cai*penter left the ship at Sydney because the carpenter was of opinion that the ship was so ill found that she could not contend with the first heavy weather she met. A public statement of the condition of the vessel when she left Wellington would be interesting. We, of course, do not vouch for the truth of Hubbard’s statement. It is much to be regretted that the Auckland Islands are not more often visited. The fleet, which three or four years since mainly devoted itself to Australia and New Zealand, is now almost exclusively occupied with the Fiji and other South Sea Islands. It is to be presumed it will very soon be considerably augmented. It is insufficient at present for the duties of the very large area which is comprised within the station. The Auckland Islands are the subject of a lease or arrangement with Dr. Monkton, but it is not known if that gentleman has yet established the settlement he proposed there.