REPORTED DEAD

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1933, Page 6

REPORTED DEAD

REAPPEARANCE AFTER 43 YEARS.

ADELAIDE, April 11

Forty-three years ago it was reported, that a young drover, William George Cook, and a mate had been speared by blacks in Queensland. The remains of tiie two drovers were identified and buried. To-day Mr 0. H. Cook, of the Railways Department, Port Lincoln, received a letter stating that his father—the drover—was alive and well, and was living at Little Hampton, near Trentham, Victoria.

It appears that the “dead” man communicated . with the police at Port Germein, where his family was living when he was reported to have been killed. They traced a brother, Mr J. L. Cook, of Prospect, who communicated with the dead man’s son, Mr C. H. Cook, who said to-day that his father must be nearly -70 yeai's of age, “1. was only 1,3 years old when I saw him last,” he said, “ft is inexplicable that at the time of his reported death letters from him suddenly ceased. Until!, then he had written as frequently as his roving life permitted.”