ENEMY MINE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12243, 15 February 1918, Page 6

ENEMY MINE.

IN NEW ZEALAND WATERS.

DISCOVERY OFF CAPE FAREWELL

[Per Press Association.]

WELLINGTON, February 14

The Naval Adviser to the New Zealand Government announces that an enemy mine has been discovered and exploded off Cape Farewell, Cook Strait. Tho mine was, however, in the area which has been suspected for some time past by the naval authorities, and which -all shipping had been warned to avoid.

PORT KEMBLA CASE REVIVED.

[From Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, February 14

Tho official announcement of the discovery of a mine off Cape Farewell revives interest in the cause of the destruction of the steamer Port Kemhla. It was thought at the time that the disaster was due to an internal explosion, that an infernal machine was secreted in the cargo loaded in Australia, but subsequent events tend to suggest that the cause was a floating mine.

There is no official statement to support this theory, but one authority assured a representative of tho “Lyttelton Times” that there was nothing in tho circumstances of the disaster absolutely discounting it.