HIKING TRAGEDY

Wairarapa Daily Times, 14 January 1932, Page 5

HIKING TRAGEDY

WILD COUNTRY. TERRIFIC STORMS. CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday. Every available man at Bealey is engaged in the search and also parties from Christchurch, Otira, Springfield and Arthur’s Pass, but none are expected to get back till the morning. Tho route to tho Carrington Hut is very rough and from tho hut to the Harman Pass is very much more so and tho searchers could not average more than two miles an hour. The route from (Browning Pass to the Ilaiman Pass is very rough and the way exposed. The men must have gone from tho Browning Pass for a mile or so to the Park Morpeth Hut. From there they would have followed up the Cronin River for about seven miles to the Whitehorn Pass. The Whitehorn Pass is a long rift giving access to the Harman Pass. ' The country is very rough and treacherous, and being on the divide is swept by storms which reach terrific intensity. It is several miles from the Harman Pass down the Taipoiti and White rivers tt> the Carrington Hut, in the Waimakariri River bed-and from there about 11 miles to tho junction of Bealey, A strong westerly was blowing high up to-day and the divide between Canterbury and the West Coast was packed with clouds. It is quite probable that the clouds are low down on the mountains and on the Harman Pass, where it would be raining or snowing.

OTHERS MISSING.

GREYMOUTH, Wednesday,

The latest Bealcy report is that six men are feared to be missing between the Harman Pass and the Carrington Hut in the region separating the upper reaches of the Wilberforce and Bealey

rivers. The three first reported were bmitli, Robbins and Loney. The others include Sweeney, reported to belong to Hokitika, and Lunn, of Canterbury. The name of the third man is not yet ascertainable. SEARCH PARTIES’OUT. WEATHER CLEARED. CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A telephone message from the Bealey shortly after 9 a.m., stated that there was no news from the parties searching for the Hampers. The country is exceptionally wild and it is not expected that there will be any report till this afternoon. The weather appears to be fine on Harmon’s Pass. Three search parties are now out and will be joined by others to-day. It was also reported at the Bealey yesterday that another party of three, whose names were unknown, had met with mishap, but there is no confirmation of this report.

MISSING TRAMPERS. LOOKING FOR GOLD. HOKITIKA; This Day. In reference to the Hampers, Merle Sweney, son of the secretary to the Hokitika gasworks, aged 23, and James P. W. Wilson, both of the Christchurch Training College, left on 27th. December for the hills, for the purpose of prospecting for gold. They were to visit Park Morpeth Hut and Carrington Hut, arranging for provisions and then go over the Mungo prospecting. They had an eighty pound swag of provisions and a tin dish, rifle and ammunition. There is no word of them since they left.