LITTLE BARRIER TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2610, 24 July 1923, Page 3

LITTLE BARRIER TRAGEDY.

INQUEST OK VICTIM

Auckland, Yesterday,

At the inauest into the death of Herbert George Wiedeman at Little Barrier, William Cleaver, caretaker on the island, said he last saw Wiedeman alive on the evening of June 15, when he retired to bed at 7.15 p.m. He found the body on June 27 at the foot of some cliffs lying face downwards with arms outstretched and in a decomposed state. Deceased was fully dressed except for his hat and boots, the latter being found above the highwater mark about a mile and a-lialf away. They appeared to have been kicked off the feet. The inquest was adjourned sine die.

How Hubert George Weideman met his death on the Little Barrier lias not yet been fully elucidated, but with the return of the party of detectives who went to the island on Tuesday there is available a considerable amount of information as to the circumstances which preceded the finding of his dead body at the foot of a 200 ft. cliff on the ocean side of the island.

The police party which went down in a launch on Thursday, took a coffin in which the exhumed body was brought back to Auckland. According to the police account the caretaker on the island, William Cleaver, was clearing a track to the mountain on June 14, and when near the top he saw .smoke rising from a ridge in the vicinity. He had with him his telescope, but this did not enable him to pick out any individual. Cleaver’s first idea was that the intruder on the island was either a poacher or some other unauthorised man.

Knowing that someone who had no right to be there was hiding, Cleaver, on the following day, continued his search, and in the afternoon he heard someone scrambling through the thick scrub, which covers the island. Looking carefully in the direction whence the crackling sounds came, he saw a man, who, by the aid of his glass, lie identified as Weideman. This man had assisted in taking him down to the island in May, 1922, when he began his lonely life as caretaker. At that time Weideman was employed by the launch people who carried down Cleaver, his family and effects. It did not take the caretaker long to discover the reason why Weideman had come to the island. A sack of kauri gum and a quantity of fungus were found in his possession, thus making it quite clear, that he had landed on the forbidden island seeking kauri gum. Cleaver took Weidman down to Kis house, and gave him. food and a shake down. On the following morning, Weidemau had gone, leaving behind him in the room he had occupied, a portmanteau. Weideman had made his exit —it cannot be called his escape, seeing he was in no way under arrest —by a side window. Thus, he had managed to slip away silently without arousing any of the other inmates. Cleaver soon discovered that his dinghy had also disappeared. This little boat was moored just in front of the house. The search for Weideman and the stolen dinghy was continued by Cleaver on subsequent days and on June 27 the body of the dead man, in a considerably bruised condition, was found. Weideman had then been dead for,.,some .days. Cleaver, tried to effect communication with the outside world, by fires and Morse lamp, to tell of the tragedy that

■ had occurred, hut the weather was | very thick; visibility was limited ' an£ tc» Jus of; distress: Cleaver received no response. In those circumstances he dug a grave and therein interred the body. The burial took place on June 29 f and it yas not until July 19 that the and it was not until July 19 that the coffin and brought back by launch to Auckland yesterday. The coffin was at once taken to the morgue. The missing dinghy was discovered about three miles from thespot where the body was. Weidemau was a seaman by calling. He was about 38 years of age, sft. 6in. in height, of medium to strong build, of fair complexion, but bald in the front. Cleaver lives on the island with his wife and four young children. The island is well known as a bird sanctuary and this fact suggests that it would not be difficult for a man to secure food. The island is about 7,000 acres in extent and the highest point is 2,600 ft. above sea-level. Where the body was found the ae& at times sweeps in with hurri-

cane force, at the foot of the cliff are numerous huge boulders, weighing anything from a. quarter to half a ton. In the fury of the storm these boulders are sometimes swept away to sea and then again thrown hack to the foot of the cliff.

The points that require elucidation are : How did Weideman come to land on the island? Did he meet hi,- death by falling from the top of (he eliff, or did lie fall out of the dinghy at sea, the body then being washed ashore? The fact that the dinghy was found in good order on the beach and with the oars and rowlocks in seems to negative the latter suggestion.

Weideman came to New Zealand nearly two years ago as a member of the crew of the schooner Cecelia Sudden, which was on the voyage from Newcastle to Callao when the first mate fell from aloft, receiving injuries to which lie succumbed before the vessel reached Auckland. Subsequently the schooner sailed from Auckland and was burned in the Hauraki Gulf, on September 10, 1921. Weideman had then been promoted to the position of first mate. He has since lived in Auckland. It is understood his mother resides in Melbourne. —Auckland Herald.