STRENUOUS DAYS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 208, 2 September 1931, Page 7

STRENUOUS DAYS.

Splendid Work Done at The Chateau. LONG HOURS WORKED. Per Press Association. THE CHATEAU, September 2. During the past few days splendid work has been done by The Chateau staff under the manager, Mr J. Cobbe, and Mrs Cobbe. With over 300 searchers as well as 250 guests and about 100 other helpers to be fed and accommodated, they were faced with a tremendous task. The stage was reached when there was not a spare blanket, mattress or pillow in the place. Accommodation was taxed to the utmost and men were sleeping wherever they could. The Railway Department was assisting by allowing food supplies to be carried on the express trains. Mr Cobbe was in bed with influenza at the time the party was reported to be missing. Fie was called at three o’clock on Sunday morning, and has not been to bed since. Mrs Cobbe was responsible for getting a staff party led by Guide Olaf Pederson, away at 3 a.m. on Sunday. This was the second search party to leave. She continued to work without sleep for sixty hours until she fainted. The mechanical staff laboured to maintain the hot water and electric power supplies, some of the men going seventy-two hours without sleep. At least five girls had no sleep for forty-eight hours. Miss A. Tonkin, the head waitress, who superintended the meals of about 700 guests, searchers and other helpers, collapsed after being sixty hours without sleep. Answering Inquiries. The Chateau has been deluged with inquiries from anxious relatives and friends in all parts of the Dominion since the first news that the party was missing got to the outside world. Two girls collapsed at the telephone switchboard and were put under a doctor’s care. Messrs A. R. King and F. Woodmass, of the Taumarunui Post Office staff, rushed up by car on Sunday night. Mr King brought a telegraph transmitter with him, and already has sent away hundreds of Press messages, while Mr YVoodmass has been operating the telephone switchboard. The two men have had barely nine hours’ sleep since they arrived. The whole of the office work has fallen on the shoulders of Miss M. Gieson, who has had little sleep.