VESSELS OVERDUE AT BLUFF

Southland Times, Issue 24448, 30 May 1941, Page 5

VESSELS OVERDUE AT BLUFF

NO GROUNDS FOR ANXIETY “There is really no need for any anxiety, for after this southerly gale has blown itself out, it will take a couple of days for the sea to go down, after which I am quite certain that both vessels will then get the birders off and return to Bluff and Colac Bay,” said a Bluff marine authority yesterday in commenting on the report published in The Southland Times yesterday about the scow Horouta and the Britannia being overdue at Bluff from voyages to the mutton-bird islands. “When the captain of the scow. Captain A. T. Miller, was leaving he said that he intended to go to Easy Harbour and wait there until the muttonbirders were ready to come off the island or until the weather was fit for them to be taken off,” he continued. “He said that some of them had told him that they would not be ready to leave before May 28 and not to come for them until that date. The birds are very fat this year and it was thought by the natives that in consequence they would be later than usual in leaving the islands. “Big Island is a very bad landing and the scow has to take a party of 12 with all their birds off this landing, and until they are taken off it is better to leave all the others in their houses on their islands, where they are comfortable. They can be taken off from these landings after the Big Island party has been taken off. The same remarks are applicable to the Britannia commanded by Captain W. B. Dixon.”