BLACK MURDERERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1923, Page 4

BLACK MURDERERS.

( APTERE ON IS!,.'. XH. SYDNEY, Aug. In. U;-r tile vns| distniiec- ol wild eoiinlry in nor; hern Australia th a nthorit ies ,le;iend more upon the rigor unit which eritninah. are tracked and In-ought t., justice than upon the mnintenam-f of a numerous. p bice for,-.* met* tlte are... in which t!a*v ate ! e.,11, d prop to 111. lilll .>in 1.,., end etdfl To poll.*,- ade.|i at:d\ Ii , thinly |mpu Itttcd lr;rl~ tumid mean prohibitive ex |;e!l- e. Rip the pal ley indicated has inculcated into the hearts oi black ami while alike a *o'olotind respect, and not a little admiration for the law. Thus it wtt, a, much a mailer if policy to; of iu.sticc that (‘unstable Wood, tv la. n hr -el old from Darn in. tin capital of the Northern Territoiy. in th * lit*-: week of in-; month with *'.’■*> lihwk trackers and ten horses, carried ill.i rilelions to bring hack at all haxartls three aboriginal- undergoing life sentences for murder who had escaped from Darwin gaol. A tvpi"*al aiiocim. n from A u*d raiia's splendid hush policemen in leggings, I : gh| cor,| riding breeches and mat tunic, lithe and alert. Woods had a difficult ta-di before him. ft retpiitvl endiirntiee of the atldete ri'cltn- all day long over tin* roughest of tracks over mountain- and throu-h rivers, all th-:*| exp ricnce and wisdom of the Ini.h- j man mid the scent of the bloodhound, i Tibs latter no while man has, buj the! blacks can scent like dogs, and the two trackers, going on ahead, picked j no idle i raid; of tin* fugitives with . marvellous rapidity. .Mile after mile, losing it and finding it again, ami picking up s-emps of information from blacks' camps or while stockmen whom the i edit email knew well where to lind ami v. here more than likely the men had hogged some food, the htth* party kept steadily on, going eastward almost narillel with the coast ol van Diemen Hull. The entitling blacks, well knowing the cleverness of the tracker';, find taken elaborate pains

not ntily to fi' i away from t!m lecognised routes l>nt tit every si room they Itriil made vide ( tits in the t roil -o that the shrewdness of the white had constantly to fo-nnerute with the ready seout of llio I .lade, Over the Alligator Hi vers i hey found themselves south of rho hnsc of the Coburg Peninsular, and from there, still hot on tho sreni, thov made across the wild and inhospitable inleiveiling (onntry, inhabited only hv blacks, some ol them far front friendly, and reached Ike coast on the other side of the peninsula, only m find ihat. the fugitives had procured a canoe and crossed to fionlhuiii Island, where the hie missionary station; where Macks are trained 10 various primary industries, is located. To get to tho island meant crossing several miles of sea. and two days were wasted in searching the coast for canoe. At hist a smalt frail little craft was found, and the constable, determined to pus-, on. sc! out in it to a rough sea. Soon, however. the canoe ua.- swamped, and had Woods not been a powerful swimmet the expedition would there have ended. lint he reached the shore again, and resorted to smoke signals which resulted in a whale boat putting off from the island, which carried him thither. Ome there lie lost no time in organising a natty of fifty blacks to scour tile island, and at last the fugitives were found in a piece of dense scrub, foodless and almost exhausted, and ready to surrender without, a struggle. In a couple of days the constable was again in the saddle with the captives handeitlfcd in charge of the trackers, and after a joruney of (WO miles spread over days he delivered them at the gates of Darwin Gaol.