[?]unken Gold —it Was

a Dream

EFERRING to “Little Sir Echo” iin Tolala’s “Talk Talk” (Feb. ; PIM ), I recall that over 20 its ago Mrs. Calder showed my it husband (Harry Bennett) and the precise spot where the man steamer Buka was sunk by [ German Commissioner many ns before, at the start of World n I.

Irs. Calder, then a widow, had lalf interest with the Expropria i Board in the Mortlocks ntation. But she then was tig on a small plantation and ding store on the Bougainville st. down from Kieta, where rry Bennett was stationed, near n. faturally, she was anti-Admini ition —she insisted that she uld be residing in her stately le in the Mortlocks. Incident , that place had developed a nite hoodoo for Australian rseers, three of whom had died iteriously in quick succession, one occasion, when I visited the utiful Mortlocks with my band, we were welcomed by an old native decked out with a man admiral’s hat, and he kily but proudly hoisted the man flag. fs. Calder, who was originally ight over from Samoa in een Emma’s” retinue, was arently of a ripe old age in the i’s; and we were not surprised n a native runner came through i Buin to say that “lapun ius he laik die.” e made all haste and went n and brought her to Kieta, re we nursed her back to th. le was very grateful, and ited on showing us where the a was sunk, in Rorowana Bay. said that the vessel was quite ile under the water when it was sunk, but that years of silt covered her from view, remember, as of yesterday, the ering in my home at Kieta, ti we animatedly discussed the ibilities of reaching the sunken and retrieving the specie h rumour persisted was there. < Mrs. Calder had never men id the contents of the Buka ns). Apart from Ben and ilf, there were Bill Stower ) would be the diver), ably ted by Yatoshi (the Japanese ain of the schooner Numa ■a) and Bill Brinkworth (the >er of the Rogia). Blakie ock (of Choiseul Plantations), ‘ge Lefler (Arawa) and A. S. h (manager of Numa Numa) also present. It was a New iea dream which nevetr tuated.— From Lillian Millar, Box 617, Innisfail, Queensland.