Novel Adventures

Misadventures she encount ered on two plane trips in the Islands, and the quick glimpse she had of native life will provide the material for the next novel of an Australian writer.

The writer, Mrs. Dorothy M. Catts, was one of 12 passengers in the flying-boat Awatere when it lost a float over the Cook Islands in May.

The crew got out onto the wing to stop the plane from plunging into the sea.

“And they stayed there,” said Mrs.

Catts, “though they were nearly blown off. We reached Akiama, where there is only one hut—the fuelling station. We were taken to Aitutaki by launch.

“They were wonderful to us there,” continued Mrs. Catts. “We stayed two days and two nights— then a Bristol freighter from New Zealand came to take us off.

“But our troubles weren’t over, because the freighter developed engine trouble between Aitutaki and Nadi. When we limped into Nadi the women were all badly shaken; we had been clinging to our Mae Wests —and praying—for three hours.”

From Nadi, Mrs. Catts had a quieter trip by air to Sydney.

Before the excitement, she had been to London for the English publication of her biography of her husband, James Howard Catts. Her last novel, Those Golden Years, was accepted by Hutchinson’s while she was in London, Mrs. R. Cermak, of Potts Point, Sydney, was another of the travellers in the plane mishaps. She lad been on a month’s visit to her brother in Tahiti.