"Mystery" Canoe In
p. 129 · Read in the full issue
New Zealand
RESIDENTS of the seaside suburb of Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand, thought they had a first-class mystery with them last month. A dug-out Polynesian canoe appeared off the beach.
Newspaper headlines insisted that it was brought by gales and ’ currents thousands of miles from islands in the Pacific.
It was right side up, had shipped little water, and was cut out of a coconut log.
However, the explanation is simple. Quite a number of Islands canoes have been taken to NZ by Islanders and yachtsmen (as cargo). This one almost certainly drifted away from a NZ beach.
If some Pacific Islander has lost a canoe, and thinks the one re ferred to may be his, he could apply to the finder, young Philip Wright, of Sumner. t Miss Phyllis Rudolph, a Maori, of Towai, Auckland, has left New Zealand for final training before being posted to the Solomon Islands as a missionary. She is believed to be the first Maori appointed to a post at an overseas mission. Before joining the mission she will do a course at the George Brown Methodist College in Melbourne.