MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT LAKE OHOU.

Evening Star, Issue 3986, 3 December 1875, Page 2

MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT LAKE OHOU.

A very mysterious and sad occurrence took place at Lake Chou between Thursday tho 25th and Sunday the 28th ult. From the meagre particulars that came to hand, we IN. O. Times’) loam that on Thursday the 2oth ult. Mr Dick, manager of Lake Ohou station, sent two men named Hugh Hannah Ritui AVatliew Cunningham with a- boftt Across the lake for a boatload of chaff. On Saturday night they had not returned, and gr ivu fears were beginning to bo entertained for their safety. On the following (Sunday) mo ning a search party was organised, and a, thorough search round the shores of the lake was instituted. he boat whs found at the south end of the lake with all the chaff, oars, etc , strewed along the shore, and inside the boat, lying acrosi the thwarts, f co downward, was the body of Hugh Hannah. There wore two or three bruises on the head, notably one on the left temj le ; bloody was flowing from the oars and mouth, and his neck, on being examined, was thought to be dislocated. There were no evidences of a struggle having taken place in the boat, nor were the deceased s clothes in any way disarranged. It is supposed that the wounds on the head resulted from tho hudy rolling from side to side of the boat with the action of the waves, but it is supposed by the people on the station that the man was murdered, and the surmise is that tho deed was done by Cunningham, of whom no traces have yet been found, although the Lake and its environs have been searched. What leads to the supposition that the man’s neck was dislocated is the fact that it c mid be moved bmk wards and forwards an inch or two. still it. is probable that this is a mistake. On Monlast n!) inquest was held before Mr D. Sutherland, J. P., of Omarama, and the jury returned a verdict to the effect that Hugh Hannah was fo’nivi djad, but there was no evidence to fihow how he came b) T his death. The deceased was afterwards buried, Ic is highly probable that a medical man will be sent from Oaraaru to make a post mortem examination of the body of Hannah, but as the Lake is about 150 miles away we cannot expect to hear the result before the beginning of next week. Mounted Constable Green, of the police force, Omam, was despatched by Sergeant Smith yesterday morning up to Lake Ohou to inquire into the matter.