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Otago Witness, Issue 3831, 16 August 1927, Page 38

Petitions front the ratepayers in the Southland Electric Power Board district were presented in the House of Representatives on Wednesday by Mr Adam Hamilton, asking that a commission bo appointed to inquire into the position as regards the making of separate rates in the district, and to* devise means of removing the causes of hardship and injustice that now obtain. They further ask that a sum be granted by Parliament sufficient to relieve them from the unproductive burden placed upon them. Writing in the Auckland Star “Shellback'’ says: "Built at Mechanics’ Bay in 1881 by the late Mr J. Bigelow, the barquentine Handa Isle was a very staunch and seaworthy ve-scl of 275 tons register, with pohutukawa frame and kauri planking. After some years in the intercolonial trade the Handa Isle was chartered to load kauri gum and flax from Auckland to New York. After discharge at the American port, a general cargo was loaded for Mauritius. From there a cargo of sugar was brought to Dunedin, then a grain cargo to Auckland, and the vessel was in the old Auckland graving dock for overhaul exactly 14 months from the day that she sailed from New York. The Handa Isle was afterwards rammed by a whale in the Tasman Sea when timber-laden on the way from Kaipara to Sydney. The afternoon watch saw two whales approaching abeam. The first whale dived under the barquentine. but the second one struck the vessel and knocked a hole in the side. The whale sank in a welter of blood, while the crew hurriedly put. an improvised collision mat over the hole. The vessel safely readied Sydney.