The anxiety in Wellington regarding the overdue Himitangi was ended at 3 o'clock this afternoon, when the Marine Department received a message from Cape Palliser, stating that the steamer Gertie had just reported that the Himitangi was stranded at the Chathams, and that the crew were standing by her.
At 6.45pm the Gertie was berthed and landed four of the Himitangi's passengers Messrs Foster, Elgar, Cannon, and Regnault. Anxious waiters were told that the stranding had not been sensational, nor attended with any fatalities.
The Gertie arrived at Waitangi on Saturday last, anchoring in the roadstead. The Himitangi could be seen lying stranded on the east side of Petre Bay, at a point about 2 miles from the Waitangi landing place.
Captain Rodger, who went down with the Gertie as mate, informed the press representatives that he had ascertained that the Himitangi went ashore on the morning of Sunday, February 11, She had arrived at Waitangi at 2 o'clock that morning after working all the other landing places she was scheduled to visit. On anchoring on arrival in the roadstead, she was three hours later found to be on the beach, having dragged both her anchors.
Immediately her position was discovered steps were taken by Captain J C Cowan and his crew with a view to trying to get her off, but these were unsuccessful.
The Himitangi was standing upright and broadside on a level sandy beach. It was considered that there were prospects of getting her off with the aid of gear and suitable weather. The captain and crew were standing by her, and are being well treated by the residents of the island. After getting the mails aboard, the Gertie left Waitangi for Wellington at 2pm on Monday, and passed the Amokura, which was also sent in search of the missing vessel, five miles from Waitangi, inward bound.
Cape Palliser was passed at 2pm, and the news was signalled by flag to the lighthouse for transmission to Wellington.
• A painful instance of the brutality into which the thoughtlessness of untrained children may sometimes lead them occurred recently in one of the large suburban schools here. The victim is a delicate little girl, eight years of age, whose remarkable acuteness in her lessons had won special and perhaps injudicious attention from the teachers.
The suggestion of favouritism seems to have aroused the animosity of a section of her schoolfellows, and a number of them set on her one night as she was going home from school. Four Fourth Standard girls took part in belabouring the child over the head with their bags of books, while children from her own class were content to hit at her with their rulers. The effects of such treatment on the sturdiest of children might easily be serious, but in this case dangerous illness was the inevitable result.
It was some time before the doctor, who has been in constant attendance, could say that the brain escaped injury, and even now, after about three weeks, the little sufferer has not sufficiently recovered to be permitted to see visitors, though it is felt she is now out of danger. It is obvious that steps of some unusual nature are called upon to impress indelibly upon the culprits a sense of the very serious and shameful nature of their conduct.
• A Te Kowhai settler is the owner of a sow which he claims has put up a record. Only three years old, she has already produced five litters of 12, 12, 12, 14, and 17 pigs, or a total of 67, which have all been sold as weaners at an average of 15s each.
- ODT, 7.3.1912.
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