LOST CHILD

Hokitika Guardian, 22 September 1931, Page 7

LOST CHILD

SIX DAYS AWAY FROM HOME. WANDERED FORTY-FIVE MILES. SYDNEY, September 10. Ail Australia marvels at the fact that the tour-year-old son of Mi' I. Shields, a Far Western settler in New South Wales, was found alive after he had been missing in wild country for six days. Hope had been practically abandoned when he was discovered, well, and almost happy, 45 miles from his home, on the outskirts of a musterers camp. A shepherd, who for six days had been scouring the countryside in his motor-car, drove the wanderer to his distracted mother. Never for a moment during the week of terrible anxiety had the mother given up hope oi finding the child alive. . When the child was found his clothing had been torn to ribbons by the sharp edges of the spear grass which abounds in the country through which he had wandered for- so. long. How In managed to get so far away from his home is a mystery. Baby Shields told an extraordinary story of how he had eaten crow foot, a clover-like grass ; and when he entered the drovers> camp his mouth was streaked with green. To the amazement of the men the child appeared to be in good health, and he chattered to them freely of his. nightmare experience. He slept in clumps of scrub, and although the nights Q n th e plain were bitterly cold, he does not appear to have suffered unduly from exposure. This is another feature of the case that is puzzling the police. The police have no reason to doubt his story, but they say that in similar circumstances most adults would have died. However, the boy seemed t< have no fears, and by instinct he selected warm spots in which to sleep. The spear grass grows to a. height of about six feet, a.nd it was through this that the child wandered for six days. Doctors and psychologists and others have discussed the case freely. A psychologist thinks that the boy’s survival was individual. While one chil would be able to go through the ordeal, others would die from the lack of food, from exposure, or from fright. He considered that the child had lived on its own vitality, and that the grass and crow foot—a juicy plant—had pro vided, not nutriment, but water. Th< tall spear grass would provide shelter from the cold. A doctor said that the reason why the child survived the rigours of the weather and the loss of food was vitamins. Although only four years o-f age, the child had evidently been fed in a proper manner, given mijk and fruit and plenty of sun. shine. It showed the marvellous vital ity of the Australian child. It, was possible for a human being to live 64 days without food, although water was a necessity. He did not think that the boy’s future would he affected in the slightest by-his experience. .