WILD RIDE

Hokitika Guardian, 30 September 1926, Page 4

WILD RIDE

CHASED BY DINGOES. SYDNEY, Sept. :5. One of tin- strangest istories that have been told of the hush in these modern days comes from the town of Lisinore, one of the most prosperous centres on the fertile North Coast of New South Wales. It concerns a chase after a well-known farmer, who was driving a motor-car, by a fierce pack of wild dingoes. The dingo is one of the few marauders Australia., possesses. Fierce native dogs, they confine their ravaging mostly to defenceless, weaker animals, taking immense tolls of sheep and young cattle, especially in the fur west of this State and in parts of Queensland and South Australia, where the very size of -the stations prevents proper safeguards, such as wire-netting the runs, t-I ho taken against, them. In the more settled parts of the country.

the advance of the white man has driven them to the barren mountain tops' and tangled valleys, if it has not eradicated them, although reports from the North Coast lately have indicated that they are once more ■on the increase. A SAVAGE HACK. The farmer who met with the strange adventure with these dingoes is a wellknown member of the Primary Producers’ Union, an organisation of Farmers, and he had been attending n meeting of the branch of the organise- j tion about twenty miles from his owr home. The business, of the meeting lasting longer than he thought it would, he found he would have tmakc the journey hack along a rough hush track by moonlight or stay tin night at a friend’s place. Possessing a motor-car. he thoug.it that the jomnoy would he little trouble, and he those to go to his own home. The road led through dense hush. He topped a rise in the rough road, and was speeding through a clear patch when he observed strange forms slinking in the shadows, and two or three ran across the road in the glare of his headlights: Suddenly he found himself in the midst of a pack of dingoes, led. as far us the motorist could determine, hv a huge half-bred dog. Fiercely leaping at the car the pack gave chase, and kept up with their quarry, the more venturesome of the dogs now and again leaping at the car. 'llie driver at first' teased the animals by alternately increasing and slackening speed, hut fearing that his car might stall, and becoming alarmed at the dingoes’ ferocity and perserveranee. he increased the speed .of the ear. The faster he went, the faster went the dingoes. They were never further than n few yards behind him. Then, despite the roughness of the track, the farmer decided to send his car along at the best speed it could attain, and it was only then, after the dingoes had chased the car several more miles that they gave up the hunt, the last to relinquish the pursuit- being the huge leader. The pack is stated to he the terror c,f the whole neighbourhood, and more ' than a dozen forays have been made against it by armed men and dogs without success. It has done much damage to slock, taking young calves, sheep, ducks and fowls. Its leader, unequalled in cunning, has warred against the whole countryside for three reasons. Now tv special expedition is being formed against the pack, for the settlors realise that its exhibition oF iierconess against the lone motorist has L proved its ability to attack human be- ' logs.