MISSING MEN RETURN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17038, 11 May 1923, Page 13

MISSING MEN RETURN.

SHOOTING PARTY’S NARROW ESCAPE. After being isolated at Cattle Creek, fourteen miles from Rangiora, since Sunday night, six Christchurch young men, who had been on a pig shooting expedition, returned home last evening. Half-starved, their faces unshaven, and their clothes torn it was easily seen that they had passed through nerve-racking experiences. If all had gone well, they would have been back in Christchurch by Sunday evening. Floods and slips, however, cut off their only route to White Rock and they had to camp out on a bleak hillside, living on less than a meal a day. By Wednesday in fact, they were reduced to eating pig's head. The names of the party are : R. R. Masters, telegraph operator, of Severn Street, St Albans. A. Campbell, electricity department, City Council, ol Severn Street, St Albans. M. Price, motor mechanic, of Warrington Street. C. M’Donald, 16 years of age, apprentice, of Chancellor Street. T. Johnston, grocer, of 56 Warrington Street, St Albans. K. Montgomery, employee of P. and D. Duncan ; of Garden Road. Messrs Masters, Montgomery and Johnston are well-known members of the Albion Football Club. A GRAPHIC STORY. While lie ate his first full meal for four days, Mr Johnston told a graphic story to a ‘‘Star” reporter last evening. “We left Christchurch on Saturday at 9 p.m..” he said, “and went by car through Rangiora and through White Rock, making for Cattle Creek. We left the car beside a stream at White Rock, and walked about seven miles through driving rain to the camping hut, carrying our guns and a few provisions. The creeks we crossed on the track were up to our knees. At tho hut there were a few things such as milk, sugar and tea, \ust about enough for a day. All day Sunday it snowed and rained. We were out all the time, but a blizzard struck us and we got only one pig.

THE ALARM GIVEN. t; Sunday night was cold and dark. Five of ns turned in early, and 1 stayed up to keep the first watch. We feared a slip. At 6.30 p.m. I heard a rumbling noise. I looked out. Water was rushing about and rocks were tumbling down into the valley. Half an hour later the water came into the hut. I gave the alarm. 4 Quick. Get out of the hut!’ We wasted no time, racing for a rise thirty yards away. There we pitched a tent, hanging it on the bough of a tree, and sitting underneath, shivering, on boxes. Water was coming in torrents down the hill side. Till 6 a.m. we sat there, wet through. It was pitch dark, and there was a great flood below. We were cold to the marrow. COMPLETELY SHUT IN. “At 6 a.m. Masters and Price went back to the hut. There was a foot of water over the floor in places, but they got a fire going after some trouble. At 7 a.m. we could see how we stood. The hut was in a valley and there was bush on all sides. A slip on the hill at the back of tho hut oil the opposite side of the creek had diverted the water, and thc*re was no chance of getting out. All Monday we stayed in the hut or near it. taking the precaution to pitch the tent properly, higher up in a better place, in case we were caught again. Our one pig came in handy. We were reduced to one meal a day—a bit of boiled pig. Water kept rushing down throughout Monday night, and three of us stopped up while the other three slept. For one to stay up alone was too melancholy.

LOOKING FOR THE FORD. “ Tuesday was no better. Masters and Price went to look at the ford, because we had been warned. 4 Tf you miss it you are lost.’ The ford .was impassable. Then we climbed to the top peak ancl looked round. Everywhere the smaller creeks had become torrents, and they had turned the main stream into a river. Tuesday night was not so bad. We kept watch all the time, for the water was sometimes rising and sometimes falling. SWEPT OFF THEIR FEET. “ Food was scarcer than ever on Wednesday. We packed our things early and walked to the ford, determined to give it a go. Masters and Montgomery stripped, and we tied ropes round them. It was no use. Before they get ten yards they were swept off their feet. We walked back to the hut. In the afternoon our position was worse. The pig was finished. When we dressed it we buried the head, so now we dug up the head again and had a meal off it, using some corn flour to make blnnc-mange. Later on we climbed the hills to look for sheep or pigs. There was nothing anywhere. On Wednesday night we slept together, setting ' the alarm clock for midnight, and getting up to I see how things were. OVER THE CREEK AT LAST. 44 Our breakfast yesterday consisted of a small plate of blano rnange each. That was dinner too. After breakfast, we climbed the hill again, crawling for miles through fern and-scrub and striking the river bed higher up. Once it took us half an hour to cover one and a half mile. The creek was falling. At length we came to a place where there were no rocks and where there was a shingly bottom. It was decided to try to get over as a last resort. Masters was the first. He stripped and got over. We were all over by 3 p.m. We had left the hut at 8 a.m. We wrung out our clothes and set sail for the car. We were aboard by 5 p.m. and she went all right. At a settler’s place tea was handed round arid we revived, though afterwards a fog made us get into low gear and slow down.” I hat’s all there is to it,” concluded Air Johnston. “ J feel good now, but I don’t want the experience again. If that first slip had landed on the hut. it would have been good-bye.”