A CRUEL DESERTION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3782, 29 August 1883, Page 4

A CRUEL DESERTION.

Mr W. F. A. Clark, tho brother of the W. 1). Clark who was deserted by his mate,

J. W. Ilungerford, in the Yorke Peninsula, is still trying to find some definite news of his brother's end. I need only briefly recapitulate the facts of the case, Avhich have been reported in Melbourne. The two men had been out looking for pastoral country, and were returning to Normanton. Clark fell sick, and could not proceed, Ilungerford thus determined to leave him, taking- four of tlic sti-on-rcst horses and ono of the two black boys who accompanied the party. According" to the statement of Hun-rerford's boy, Clark ivhen left Avas very "weak, but able to get on a horse. He had no flour or ten, only a little sugar, but plenty of firearms and ammunition. There was a good deal of game in the neighborhood if the sick man could have hunted, but the horses left Aiith him were very weak aud sore, and the wild blacks swarmed in tho Aicinity. The boy also states that Clark was crying Avhen his mate deserted him—the tears of a man broken down by sickness and abandoned to a terrible death. This was in the early part of tho year, and nothing more has ever been heard of Clark or the black boy left with him, Avho probably also deserted his dying master and avus either killed by the surrounding tribes or found his Avay back to his own people. Hiingei-ford pushed on to Normanton. On his Avay he met some Avhito people aud a sub-inspector of black police, but said nothing to them of the perilous state iv Avhich he had left his mate. Nor did he mention it at Normanton, Avhere he stayed some days waiting for a steamer to take him round to C'ooktown. AVhen he finally arrived at the last-named town and completed his business, he reported the circumstances to the police, exjiressing surprise that Clark had never turned up. There avus a storm of indignation at once, for the one thing a bushman or a pioneer never overlooks is the desertion of one man by his mate. "Bight or Avrong, in safety or danger, even in the A'ory jaws of death, a Avhite man stick's to his mate, and does not leave him to die or pull through, as Ilungerford had done. And the indignation has not yet died away, for Ilungerford is the subject of very uncomfortable demonstration whenever he makes his appearance in any assembly of J-.uropeansiii the North, Search has been made for traces of Clark at intervals, and a sub-inspector of black police is now on patrol, looking for indications of his fate. But Ilungerford has always either neglected or refused to go out himself. If be had done so, he could have directed the searchers to the spot Avhere he left his mate, and there, probably, some memorial Avould be found. Clark ivas left in a tent, and probably butied a note-book or something of the kind, and tho tent-pegs, which the blacks Avould never tlrink of disturbing, even if they tore away the calico, Avould soon be detected by keen-eyed bushmon or troopers, and indicate the exact spot Avhere search should be made. I believe and I may say I hope—that the last incidents of the tragedy will bo cleared up. Ilungerford—• smarting, I suppose, under the popular sentiment—has Avritteu a long letter to the Courier, sotting- forth his exculpation. Heasserts that Clark ivas in "travelling order " when he left him, and that it was by mutual agreement they separated, because it was a matter of pressing necessity that one or other should reach town and complete the business in which both were concerned. Ho claims, further, that he (Ilungerford) incurred the greatest danger in pushing on, and asserts that he left good horses with Clark. The neglect to report at Normanton ho explains by saying that ho had no suspicion that anything was wrong with his mate or any doubt that ho ivould turn up. This explanation, which leaves untouched the fact that Hungerford has always found business too pressing to allow him to search for tho mate whom he still professes to believe may be alive, is not likely to satisfy any bushman, or, I think, anyone else.—Argus's Brisbane correspondent.