A FAMILY MATTER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 272, 24 April 1914, Page 3

A FAMILY MATTER

ABDUCTED DAUGHTER FOUND.

NINE YEARS' SEARCH.

Melbourne, AutU 13. Having circled the world one and a half times, Walter Neville, of Galashields, Scotland, \t- at last within grasp of his object—tin: of his only daughter.

Neville arrived by the R.M.S. Mooltnn this morning in good spirits. He said that such a fooling of happiness had been been absent from him for nine yews He. was then a prosperous boot retailer •with a wife and a bonny daughter four years old. Returning one evening from business he found his wife verging on collapse, and she told the remarkable story ;that while she had been expostulating with a vegetable hawker for listing the front door instead of the back, their child had disappeared. There was no sign of the girl for IS months, and the mother drooped and died. 'Neville then received a letter hearing the London postmark, and containing four words, "Your child is safe." He Tushed to London and told .Scotland Yard, and employed a detective, but ' «onl<l not find out anything. A year Hater 'he received a letter from {.'apetown, repeating the four words. Neville sold his 'business, wound up his affairs, and rushed off to Capetown. Then came an exciting incident. The unhappy father wandered about the city for two months, onll'liari nearly given up hope, when, idling one day in the street, he saw his daughter in a cab. A man sat 1 beside her, and the front of the vehicle I was packed with Inggago. Neville shouted, but the cab did not stop. He sought another vehicle unsuccessfully, rushed to the shipping -offices, bought a ticket to Australia by the Militades—whieli was on the point of departure—hired .a motor-boat, and set out after the stcamw in the certainty that his daughter wav. on board. But, when he reached the deck after a long race, he found that a second steamer, bound for Buenos Ay res, had left Capetown thai morning, and that his daughter was on it. Neville had perforce to make the trip to Australia. Jle then" passed on to South America, via \ : ?w Zealand, but his quest in the great American cities was hopeless from the first, fie worked there to husband his resources, and then returned to Scotland, where he wailed patiently, Seven weeks ago he got another letter, and this time the mystery was cleared | up.

"My daughter is safe in New Zealand," lie said this morning. "Slit is a bpnny. winsome lass, and I am just longing to see her again. She has been in safe hands. The letter explained everything, and I was" told to come. It is surely a family matter, ami Flora, and 1 would prefer not to say who took her away."