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Star (Christchurch), Issue 17028, 30 April 1923, Page 3

Few stranger stories have been brought up from the sea than that of the silent sentry of H.M S. Ariadne told by the direr, who has been working on the cruiser sunk by a German submarine five miles off Eastbourne iu 1917. According to the diver. Mr Dan Hornet, of Glasgow, he saw a marine supported by a portion of the shii> standing as though on duty, his rifle with bayonet fixed grasped in his hand. He seemed as though he had been in the same position in the dim shadow of the wreck for five years, standing sentry over the dead, for 34 men ar* believed to have gone down with th# ship. The diver told the story when he came up from the wreck after being imprisoned there for an hour. Mr Pollard, who is in charge of the diving operations for Refloating Limited, marine salvage contractors. states that the diver got into an awkward corner and narrowly escaoed with hi* life. Ho was in a oonditTon of mink stress at the time after his experience. Whether the story is another of the queer truths of the sea or not will probably never be known. The first attempt to blow -jp rho emiser wa* made recently. Six gun-cotton charges weighing 501 b each were electricallv fired from a boat a mile distant. Ex nectations of a huge! upheaval and big bang were unfulfilled, for the water remained unruffled ; and only a slight report was heard. At a meeting of the North Canterbury School Committees’ Association on Saturday night a letter was received from the Minister of Education stating that the reductions in th*> grant for the maintenance of school building# were imposed bv a special committee of the House of Representative*, and that lie had no option but to accept the decision arrived at. He hoped, however, that the giant during the current year would be a.t the old rate. It was decided to petition Parliament to make an increase in the grant.