MOTOR LAUNCH FATALITY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 9, 9 January 1913, Page 2

MOTOR LAUNCH FATALITY.

o MISHAP STILL UNEXPLAINED. (Per Press Association.) Masterton, January G. No trace has yet been found of the missing motor launch or the four men who were in it. A hat, oars, and some wreckage have been found at the mouth of the Aohanga river. Search parties were out on Sunday, but failed to find any trace of the bodies. Little or no light can be shed on the circumstances surrounding the disaster. Even provided the launch had weathered the rising seas, and her engines had proved reliable, the return trip and re-entrance of the Aohanga river would have been a hazardous undertaking. Dangerous rocks abound about the entrance, so that if the men were at all late in entering the river disaster would be inevitable. The fact that the launch is coming ashore in pieces seems to indicate that she had come to grief on the outer rocks at the entrance to the river. The missing men went out on the steamer Kahu on New Year’s Day, and had a pleasant time. When the Kahu left for Wellington, they embarked in the launch, intending to make for the mouth of the Aohanga river. The launch was last seen by the crew of the Kahu near the river. LOST WITH ALL HANDS. Masterton, January 8. Mr W. H. Denby returned to-day from Aohanga, where he has, with others, been conducting a search for the bodies of the four men who were drowned in the launch fatality on New Year’s Day. A boot of one of the missing men lias come ashore, but otherwise nothing lias be cm. found. It is considered certain that the launch was swamped at the mouth of ' the river and went down with all hands.