THE TANTANOOLA TIGER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 222, 13 January 1911, Page 8

THE TANTANOOLA TIGER

m A STRANGE FIND. Some years ago a tiger was alleged to be at large at Tantanoola (telegraphed the South Australian correspondent ot the Sydney Herald). In the absence ot evidence of his presence the scare died away, to be superseded by a general belief that an imaginative resident had stumbled on a mare's nest. Conclusive proof has now been furnished that the "tiger" had corporal existence after all. Early last month three snipe-shooters found a lair which revealed an organised system of shecp-stcalingand slaughtering unequalled in the annals of Australian pastoral crimes. "Robbery Under Arms" contains no story of crime more venturesome and deliberate. Sheep-stealing has been rife in the drainage area for manyyears, but the utmost astonishment is expressed at the extraordinarily daring system which has been flourishing at Tantanoola apparently for several seasons. On December 4, Frank' Osborne and C. F. and J. P. Burcliard left Tantanoola to shoot snipe on Lake Bouney's flats. While searching in Mr. James Chant's big scrub paddock, Osborne's attention was arrested by a dreadful stench. He traced the origin of the smell to a dense clump of ti-tree half a mile away. The thicket seemed impenetrable, but among the fringe of low scrubs Osborne noticed a well-worn path winding through the undergrowth. He followed it and was astonished to find that it led to the face of a high palisade of ti-tree. Behind the thick bush, cunningly planted in the mud, he discovered a narrow race leading to the heart of the jiingle. Osborne pluckily ventured into the winding passago for a distance of 25 yards, and found a corral 20ft by 30ft hewn out ot the solid jungle. The place was like a shamble. Freshly-killed sheep and lambs were strewn in all directions. On overhead wires drawn from wall to wall long lines of skins were drying with the flesu still red and wet. Osborne left the spot, and returned with C. Burchard, who had also been investigating. They counted 13 skins' on the wires, and 15 sheep just killed. Here and there were careases in various stages of 'decay, half buried in the dreadful mire, Burcliard waded to the end of the corral, and found another race leading deeper into the labyrinth. He-followed it and found a veritable chamber of horrors. In a larger corral, piled two and three deep, were the bodies of 42 sheep and lambs, freshly killed, and more wires and skins. ' All the sheep bore Mr. James Chant's brand. Only a couple of days had elapsed since the killing, but innumerable bones and skulls and putrid filth revealed the magnitude of the "tiger's" operations. J. Burchard found the stench too strong, and was unable to venture through the first passage. No time was lost in placing the facts before the proper authorities, special officers investigating, and the strictest secrecy being observ d. A few facts, however, transpired recently, and "the tiger's lair" has beiome quite a show place among people aware of its exist-' enco.