FATAL SHINGLE SLIPS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19783, 5 March 1927, Page 6

FATAL SHINGLE SLIPS

IN ROUGH COUNTRY YOUNG MAN’S FATE IN DOUBT [ Per Presn Association. ] BLENHEIM, March 4. Practically all hope of finding Eric Lee Palmer, the young schoolteacher, who has been missing in the Benmoro country since Sunday last, has now been abandoned. Search was kept up all day yesterday, and a small party, including the unfortunate young man’s father was out. to-day, but it is understood that unless the. missing man is located by evening search will bo relinquished. There seems little doubt that Palmei, after leaving his companions, attempted to penetrate into the country known as “No Man’s Land” at the back or 1 Benmorc. This is steep, precipitous country, characterised in many > laces by sheer precipices 300 to 400 feet i n height, and containing many enormous shingle slips. An attempt to cross some of these slips is fatal, as the shingle, once set on the move, would almost inevitably bury the adventurer. It is feared that Palmer has probably been carried down in one of these slips. In any case the country in the vicinity is so rugged and broken that it is almost impossible to traverse, and the searchers’ task would be supcihuman and almost certainly foredoomed to failure, as it would be quits possible to bo within feet of the missing man and never see him.