Sunday Island

H.M.S. “Dunedin” Visits Two Modern Crusoes

From Our N.Z. Correspondent

Auckland. July 20.

4 VISIT to Sunday Island, where two New Zealanders went last year to live the life of modern Crusoes. was paid by H.M.S. Dunedin in the course of her present Pacific cruise. It was the first contact the two men. Mr. A. Bacon and Mr. B. Robertson had had with the out side world for many months. The war ship delivered mails from relatives in New Zealand.

A few short blasts on the siren brought the two men to the water’s edge, and they were, taken aboard the Dunedin in a whaler. One was wearing a singlet, shorts, and an old straw hat. and the other only a pair of shorts and a long ginger beard.

They had dinner on the warship.

Several of the naval men visited the shack on the island. They found it sur rounded by orange trees laden with fruit and healthy in growth. Other tropical fruits and vegetables were in cultivation nearby. The men were apparently en joying their lonely existence.

Mr. Bacon, it will be remembered, was one of a party which attempted to settle the island in 1926, but the venture ended in tragedy when one of the party died of tetanus. He now intends to pass the re mainder of his days there.

Mr. D. H. Vertigan, of the N.G. District Services Department, sailed from Sydney for Rabaul with his wife and two children by the Montoro at the end of July.