Saved Launch; Lost Life

From Our Own Correspondent

Noumea, Oct. 26.

A YOUNG New Hebridean named Ata, in the employ of M. Edward Spahr, of Timbia, New Caledonia, seeing his boss’s launch in danger of destruction during a coastal storm, swam out in company with a Lifou boy and anchored it in safety. Unfortunately, diving into the sea for the return journey ashore, he disappeared completely.

It is presumed he was taken by a shark, for the bays in the locality are infested with them.

New Caledonian sharks have the repu tation locally of being less hungry for human victims than those in Australian waters, the explanation given being that our lagoon is exceptionally rich in fish.

During the trochus season, divers plunge hundreds of times daily and encounter scores of sharks, but are seldom worried by them, unless they attack the monsters with spears, which is simply asking for trouble.

Mr. W. H. Carpenter, who is head of W. R. Carpenter & Co. in New Guinea, arrived in Sydney last month by airliner.

It is Mr. Carpenter’s first holiday for four years.

Mr. T. C. Barclay arrived recently at Suva, Fiji, and proceeded to Vatukoula, where he has joined the staff of Loloma (Fiji) Gold Mines Ltd., in place of Mr.

A. R. Reed, who has returned to the United States.