STRANGE CONDUCT OF A BOY.

Patea Mail, Volume 1, Issue 28, 17 July 1875, Page 3

STRANGE CONDUCT OF A BOY.

“ We have seldom come across a more curious and painful case.” remarks the “ Ovens and Murray Advertiser,” “ than that recorded in the report of an inquest held at Eldorado, before Dr Dobbyn, on Saturday last. A young life has been sacrificed tbroTigh the ignorance or cowardice of a lad eight years old. Our readers will remember that -wo have mentioned in former issues that a little lad named Joseph Richards was missing from Wednesday afternoon, and that on Saturday we had to announce that his corpse had been found in a partially covered tank at the rear of an unoccupied house. It was stated when first the boy’s prolonged absence began to cause uneasiness to his friends, that he had been last seen in the company of another boy of his own age—eight years —named Horace Chicken, and he was immediately applied to for information. He was questioned most kindly by several persons, but persistently answered that Richards had agreed to meet him at the Post-offiice, bitt that he had not seen him. The real facts of the case were only disclosed at the inquest, and they are certainly of a most extraordinary kind. Horace Chicken then admitted that he bad been in company tvltb tbe deceased lad Richards, and had actually seen him fall into the tank. He then walked away, and falling in with Mr J. J. Newton, who was at work near, and who could even then easily have saved the drowning ? child had he been informed of what had befallen him, instead of saying a word on the subject, Chicken talked for a considerable time with Mr Newton, went went home, and had his tea, retiring to bed at his usual hour, and without mentioning to any human being the, fatal fact of which he only was cognisant. Even more astonishing than this is the fact that the lad Chicken accompanied the search party which organised the next morning, and tramped over the ranges and the low-lying lands in eager search for the schoolfellow whoso body he must have known to be lying at the bottom of the tank, where it was subsequently found. The whole story seems to be incomprehensible. One Would imagine that the first impulse of a child on seeing a playfellow fall down a hole would be either to speak to him, in order to ascertain how he Was situated, or to cry out or run for the nearest help. But

tliis Chicecu pursued Ids walk, had a pleasant chat with Mr Newton, said Ids prayers, we are informed, as usual, and and slept soundly, while his unfortunate little comrade was lying stark at the bottom of the tank, after, as appeared from his position when found, a frantic struggle to support himself, by clinging with his hands and knees to the sides of the tank.”