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MYSTERY OF THE WEST

PASTORALIST'S DISAPPEARANCE,

The mystery surrounding tho disap- I pearanco of a station owner named Ber- J trand Honry Robert Bower, part owner I of the Isdell Junction Station, in the/ north, some 200 miles from Derby,' re- | mains unsolved. Bower, who was in. business partnership with Alexander Brown Saddler, in connection with the Isdell Junction Station and other pastoral country, is said to have left tho homestead in February, 1917, en route for Pine Creek, in order to purchase a team of donkeys to traverse tbodiiß-- 1 cult oountry, rendered more difficult owing to the wet season. Bower, according to the reports received, took only two horses, one carrying. provisions for tho long journey, and with no natives to assist him. Bower was known to bo a thoroughly experienced bushinan, and doubtless the detectives' regarded it as strange that he should have left the station, knowing the difficulties likely to meet him on the overland trip in the shape of flooded creeks and rivers, .boggy BtT6tches._ of country, and tho occurrence of Kiinberly disease, to which the horses in. the north are subject in tho wet seasons, without more adequate provision for his safety on- tho expedition. However, nothing amiss was feared until over, a month later, when, doubts wero raised as to Bower's safety, and tho matter was reported to the police. The route ho was supposed to have taken was traversed' by polico. and black trackers, but without finding any trace of Bower or any signs which indicated that he had ever passed by or canipcd ' on' the track. Then came . what at first was regarded as the. solution of the. mystery. Stories were told to the police by some aborigines that natives bad killed Bower near Crocodile Pool, oil the Leonard River, at a point near a gorge in tho Leopold Ranges. Jl'be pool is described as about a quarter of a mile long, about thrco 'chains wide, and ranging to 20 feet in depth. The supposed murderers were eaid by their fellow natives to have beaten Bower to death, and then thrown .the body, together with the dead man's rills .iud other property, into the pool where it was deepest. Tho natives were detained, and tho suspects captured and held by the police. Tho pool was dragged, and a thorough search made. AH endeavours failed. I.u the meantime Detectives Manning and O'Brien wero dispatched from Perth to the north to contimio investigations. To these officers the aborigines confessed having told lies, and admitted that tho whole story about-the natives in custody having murdered Bower was a fabrication. Those detained were released, and there tho matter ends.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19180128.2.50

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 11, 28 January 1918, Page 9

Word count
Tapeke kupu
444

MYSTERY OF THE WEST Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 11, 28 January 1918, Page 9

MYSTERY OF THE WEST Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 11, 28 January 1918, Page 9

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