THE MISSING PERTHSHIRE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3737, 11 May 1899, Page 5

THE MISSING PERTHSHIRE.

PRESS ASSOCIATION. DUNEDIN, Wednesday. Although a cable was sent on Monday to Messrs Turnbull, Martin and Co., as owners of the overdue Perthshire, asking for instructions, no reply has been received up to the present.

The anxiety respecting the safety of the Shire liner Perthshire, now fourteen days out from Sydney to the Bluff, is naturally increasing as day after day no news of her whereabouts is heard. The supposition is that the machinery has broken down about halfway across tho Tasman Sea, in which case the steamer would be right out of the ordinary track of intercolonial stumers, as very few vessels make the direct passage between the two ports in question. In any case we are not inclined to think that anything really serious has befallen the vessel, which is a veryfine stamp of a modern cargo-carrying steamer. She is schooner-rigged, and the limited area of canvas carried would at least enable her to make good weather, though perhaps not in the direction of the Bluff. In the present state of things, and in the face of the anxiety that is being expressed all over the colonies for the safety of the vessel, it is time that the Marine Department bestirred itself to despatch a steamer to search for the Perthshire. The Hinemoa is now on the west coast, and a few days’ cruise on the track from Sydney to the Bluff would not interfere greatly with her present work. Captain Richardson, of the Waikare, who arrived from Sydney this morning, is of opinion that if the Perthshire has broken down she would most probably drift to the northward, as the prevailing winds and weather in the Tasman Sea is all from the southward, the Waikare experiencing strong southerly winds with very heavy- seas tbe whole wajr^oross.