LOST IN RANGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23829, 8 June 1939, Page 8

LOST IN RANGES

ANXIETY FOR DEER-STALKERS FOUND BY SEARCH PARTY (Special to Dailv Times) WELLINGTON, June 7. The anxiety felt for the safety of two young men, Mr Francis Corrison Swanwick and Mr Herbert Pickering, both single, of Levin, who left on Saturday for a week-end deerstalking expedition into the Tararua Ranges, was relieved to-day. They were found by a search party at the Te Matawai Hut, a nine hours’ tramp from Levin. The pair were none the worse for their experience. They slept out in the open in shocking weather conditions for two nights and were without food.

A search party, headed by Mr R. A. Fuller, which ’left on Monday morning returned late yesterday afternoon without having seen any sign of the lost pair. On Monday the party traversed the ground where the stalkers were last seen, but unfavourable conditions prevented any extensive search. A party, members of the LevinWaiopehu Tramping Club, led by Mr N. M. Thomson, and comprised of Messrs T. A. Kerslake, R. Webb, C. Wilkinson, A. Hayward and W Harris, left to continue the search. On Saturday, Messrs Swanwick and Pickering made their way to Te Matawai Hut, the last shelter to the west of the ranges, which was to be the base for their week-end operations. Later in the day they were joined by 11 members of the Manawatu Tramping Club and four from the Levin-Waiopehu Club. At 10.30 a.m on Sunday, warmly clad, carrying rifles and sufficient food for the day, and accompanied by dogs, they left the hut to work the country round Tarn Ridge. They were last seen at noon the same day skinning a deer at the headwaters of the Waingawa River, near Mount Lancaster.