TREASURE SEEKERS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 11897, 20 June 1906, Page 4

TREASURE SEEKERS.

Akothsb attempt is to be made to discover the hidden treasures of Cocoa Island. This time the seeker is an adventurous and wealthy woman, Mrs Roswell D. Hitchcock, of New York. Her party will include Admiral Palliser, who was a member of tho expedition organised by Lord Fitawilliam a year ago. It is estimated that the treasures of Iho island are woith at least .£7,000,000, and some calculations give a possible .£20,000,000. At any rate the prize ie worth seeking. Lori Fitzwilliam's party, it will be remembered, returned bccau«*» of an accident to hie yacht, the Veronica. Another band of treasure-seekers is being organised in the Old Country for a less romantic but more solidly practical expedition. Gold-dredging has lost the charm of novelty in New Zealand, but Otago is far from being the only alluvial area to be exploited in the world. The latest country to be attacked is Patagonia, and tho operations of the syndicate will extend, it is said, to Terra del Fuego. The plan to be i followed involves a stationary dredge, and a river tender, a stern-wheel paddle boat, iike a shallow barge. This dredge tender* is to carry the gold-bearing sand and soil from tho dredge to tho headquarters, where the gold will be extracted. Interest is still maintained, it seems, in the various schemes for raislrtg sunken treasure ships in European waters, but no important progress is recorded. The very latest proposal is a search for the jewels which King John lost in his hasty trip across the Wash. Speaking at a meeting of the Thoroton Society in Nottingham, Mr St. John Hope, sn eminent antiquarian, propounded the startling theory that this treasure, which is believed to have included the Crown ieweis, lies in an accessible position awaiting the coming of the enterprising treasure Mjeker. Mr Hope believes that the site is i.ow dry land, the Wellstream having been considerably narrowed since the thirteenth century. He suggests that shafts might be eank near Sutton Bridge, in Lincolnshire, to find the treasure snd remembering the magic influence of tho word '-treasure" we f.liall not be surprised to find monoy forthcoming for the project.