HUNTERS OF SOUVENIRS

Taranaki Daily News, 27 October 1932, Page 4

HUNTERS OF SOUVENIRS

WRECKED PLANE STRIPPED MANY PEOPLE CLIMB THE HILL. / ~ AMAZING ACTS OF COLLECTORS. By Telegraph.—Pres* Association. Wellington, Last Night. News that an aeroplane had been wrecked in the hilly country overlooking Tawa Flat and that the two pilots had been killed spread quickly. Besides many residents of the locality a number of sightseers came from the city to undertake the steep climb. Several young married couples took children as young as three or four years with them. One man, badly smitten with the madness of a souvenir collector, carried awpy almost sufficient trophies to stock a curiosity shop. Assorted articles bulged hie pockets and his arms held an aileron, still well covered with fabric, two or three in-, ter-plane struts and other souvenirs. A cameraman secured a magneto from the engine and a taxi-driver took one of the cockpit shutters. Another intensely proud person gathered a small case for folding maps which was formerly fastened inside the cockpit. Fully 80 per cent, of those who reached the machine took away some self-selected reward for their journey, and it was a much souvenir-tattered machine they left behind. The Aero Club salvaged the engine and odds and ends and burned the remainder.