“Niagara” Is
p. 16 · Read in the full issue
Mined
Pacific Mails and Goods Lost
THE veteran Canadian Australasian liner “Niagara”, 13,415 tons, which had been running between Sydney and Vancouver, across the Pacific, for over 25 years, struck a mine off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, at about 3.45 a.m. on Wednesday, June 19, and foundered two hours later.
A violent explosion tore a huge hole in her side but, owing to the prompt closing of most of the bulkhead doors, the liner floated for some time after she was abandoned by 136 passengers and 202 members of the crew.
All on board were saved, uninjured, thanks to the fine work of Captain W.
Martin and his officers and crew, and the castaways were all safely back in Auckland within 18 hours of the disas ter.
It was reported, at first, that the ex plosion was an internal one, and there was much talk of treachery; but quick work by naval units disclosed that there w r ere mines in the vicinity—a couple were swept up within a few hours of the sinking of the “Niagara”—and it became clear that the mail ship had been lost owing to raider activity.
All the mails were lost. They included consignments for Fiji, Tahiti, Fanning Island and Hawaii, as well as for the United States. The “Niagara” sailed from Sydney on Thursday, June 13, and carried all mails posted in Australia for those places between (about) May 24 and June 13.
The “Niagara” carried a large mixed cargo, much of it for Fiji.
Passengers, in addition to losing nearly all their personal belongings, suffered great inconvenience. They remained in Auckland, awaiting another vessel to take them on to Pacific and American ports; but a trans-Pacific liner which followed, a week behind the “Niagara”, did not go to Auckland —probably owing to a fear of mines.
Sydney passengers for Suva were:- — Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Allard, R. V. Clark, Miss C. Cade, Mrs. E. Candy, Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Exon and infant, Misses E. and J. Exon, Mrs. M. L. and Master C.
B. McCullagh, Mr. and Mrs. A. G. and Miss E. M. Mac Diarmid, Miss M. R.
Ohlson, Mr. and Mrs. K. R. Sands, Miss H. I. Swinbourne, Mr. A. K. Woodhead, Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Guinery, Miss A. E.
Tucker, Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Williams, Mrs. M. Arnold, Mr. V. Bagawan, H. Lax man, Mrs. A. McKenzie, Mr. Siu Kong Po (joined at Auckland).
Hon. George H. Murray, M.L.C.. Dir ector of Agriculture in New Guinea, re turned to the Territory in June after a brief furlough in Sydney.
Australian newspapers have been giving much space to the adventures of Dr.
Phyllis Kaberry, a young Australian an thropologist, who recently returned to Sydney after living for 13 months in a native village in the foothills of the Torricelli Range, New Guinea. She is re ported to have lived alone in a native sago-thatched bush house, with camp bed, phonograph, and a few other neces sities as her only furniture.