A FAULTY COMPASS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 105, 4 May 1929, Page 8

A FAULTY COMPASS

CONFERENCE CONTINUES GERMAN DELEGATE RETURNS. [Australian Press Assn.l Received Afay 3, 11 p.nv PARIS, Al ay 2. Dr. Schacht returned from Berlin and attended a meeting of he reparations experts. The chiefs of the various delegations have submitted fresh proposals. With Dr. Schacht’s return the experts’ reparations discussions seem about to enter the final phase. Dr. Schacht declined to give any indication whether he intended to break fresh ground. He will take Air Owen Young into his confidence tonight and the Allied experts will learn the results of the interview to-i-orrow. If Dr. Schacht is able to -*.er a promising basis for renewed negotiations these will begin informally, otherwise the Allied experts will complete their report and the inquiry will terminate. INSTRUMENT UNTESTED ILL-FATED KOOKABURRA. [ Australian Press Assn. ] SYDNEY, May 3. It has now been disclosed that the compass with which Anderson and Hitchcock were taken so far out of their course on the ill-fated Kookaburra flight was fitted into the ’plane only the day before it left Richmond. The compass was that used by Captain Lancaster in his flight from England in the Red Rose with Afrs Millar, and it had not been used nor tested since. TOOLS STOLEN GOLD PROSPECTOR S STORY. [ Australian Press Assn. 7 ADELAIDE, May 3. Afartin Krominer, gold prospector, now visiting Adelaide, tells of a romantic meeting with Anderson and Hitchcock 34 miles south of Oodnadatta on April 9. Krommer was sitting on the roadside when the Kookaburra alighted nearby. He hurried to the ’plane and saw the aviators examining the engine. Anderson asked Hitchcock for the box of tools. Hitchcock replied, “Somebody stol.e them while I was in hospital.” Hitchcock liad a bad illness some time before the flight. Anderson retorted: “Why didn’t you tell me at Broken Hill?” They worked on the engine, using a screwdriver as a chisel and the end of a corkscrew as a hammer. They had difficulty in getting into the air until Krommer held one wing and Hitchcock the other. Then both thanked Krommer, shook hands, and flew away. Krommer said that it seemed that the aviators were very short of tools, dug to theft by somebodv.