A MELANCHOLY INCIDENT.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 12, 26 January 1870, Page 4

A MELANCHOLY INCIDENT.

After five days of painful suspense and uninterrupted search, the remains of the missing child, the daughter of J. W. Murdoch, Esq., It. M., of Goodwood, were found on (Sunday morning last on Goodwood Beach, at a place known as Booby's Head. At about twenty minutes past 12 o'clock on Monday, the lOfcli inst., the little girl was last seen alive, and from that time until about the same hour on Sunday last, no traces were discovered of her, and the wildest excitement and apprehension existed, vague rumours of foul play being afloat. The result of the inquiry held on the body on Monday last will, however, set all doubts on this head at rest. So soon as the sad intelligence of the sudden disappearance of the child became known, the settlers and inhabitants of Palmeiston, Goodwood, and Waikouaiti, like good Samaritans, repaired to the scene of the mishap, and, day after day, a vigorous search was continued, but without success, and every effort that human ingenuity could devise, or kindness prompt, failed to discover the whereabauts of the poor child. The Goodwood Bush, as far as it was deemed possible the little girl could travel, was carefully searched; and we believe that the place where the body was found did not escape observation. The most reasonable supposition of the cause of the body having been taken to where it was found, is that it was washed there by the sea, the waves at high tide reaching that spot. Wo believe it is the only place along that part of the coast whore all kinds of debris are washed and lodged, to be again carried out by the receding tide. How the child got into the sea remains a mystery, as it was a very bad walker for its age, and could not walk any distance without resting. It is supposed that the poor little thing, who was in the garden at the time her mother went to visit a neighbour, must have strayed away, and having wandered about until she had lost herself, fallen either into the sea or the creek, and had afterwards been washed up to the place where it was found. The distance from where the child was found to the residence of Mr Murdoch is about two miles. The state of preservation in which the child was when found is accounted for by the fact of its being for some . time in the water. —The jury, at the inquest, returned a verdict of—'• .Found dead, Within the inrinonce of ti.r. tides: no evidence to show cause of death."— Waikouaiti flcrahl.