MURDER ON LONELY STATION.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16159, 13 March 1918, Page 5

MURDER ON LONELY STATION.

(FROM OTJB OWN CORRESPONDENT.) _ jj" SYDNEY, March 6. Some idea, of the lonely lives lived ,( by some men engaged in the pastoral ![. industry in out-back Australia is given ■"{ by the circumstances surrounding tlw i V murder of a station manager iii the jj wildest part of Gippsland, in Victoria. j James Barclay, tho manager of "Won- '.d; nan gat ta cattle station, 100,000 acres, jJ, had lived entirely alono in the homo- ,[< stead for tho greater part of six years, »; his only companions being his dogs. jl Few persons passod that way; on ono > 5 j occasion, when the snow cam© down ■ I from Mount Howitt, and cut off com- , | munications, ho saw no ono for two t months. a About the beginning of last Decern- I ber he engaged a man cook, and in tho ! | middle of tho month ho and the cook 1 | rodo into tho 'nearest settlement to j vote in the conscription referendum. I That was the last timo Barclay was seen | alive. A man who used to take liis I | mail to him called at tho homestead I with letters. There was a notice on | the door, "Back in two days," bo ho left tho letters and went away. A fortnight later ho called again. Tho J notice and tho letters wore still there. i He thereupon gave tho alarm, and,.after I some days, duo to. tho remoteness ot | the station, a, search was organised. There was a track through a, shrub- 1 B bery adjoining' tho homestead, and j this was followed down to a creek. f Here was disoovered the body of Bar- jj| clay, so decomposed- that it was I nop- jj tifiable only by tho clothes. It had y been buried, but the creek had risen, | and the flood had washed out the re- ! mains. Barclay's revolver was miss- f ing from tho. house, but there are Hidi- y cations that Barclay was poisone<Land 1 his dead "body dragged away. There K was no sign whatever of the cook, for Hi whom tho police are now enquiring. B . Last Friday a party of police left K for tho station, to bring in the remains H of tho murdered man, for enquiry by m the coroner. After leaving the rail- H way they had to travel for 76 miles Bf over a "lonely trail that winds over IB broken, heavily wooded coontry. They IV had to climb 6000 feet, over Mount Iff Howitt, cross wide valleys, and descend nB the precipitous sides of a rango* The I ( station manager used to bring mobs of Ij cattle over this trail, which was con-1| sidored a remarkable feat. The police 1 j expect that the return, journey wil 11 occupy them a week. J i