BLACK TRACKERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 February 1942, Page 4

BLACK TRACKERS

EXAMPLES OF REMARKABLE SKILL. ■ MISSING SOLDIERS FOUND IN BUSH. SYDNEY. January 28. A rescue party, which returned to Darwin after finding two soldiers who were missing in the bush tor thiee days, told an amazing: story ot expert tracking by three aboriginal trackcis —Sambo, Henry, and Don. Nearly 1000 soldiers took part in the .search, which was led by Mounted-Constablc MacFarlane. The trackers spent a full day studying the lay of the country, the likely direction which the lost men would take, and eventually crossed then tracks. Then they followed at speed over rocky reefs, where, to MacFarlane, an experienced bushman, there was absolutely no indication of tracks, and across streams and through dense bush, where an occasional disturbed leaf or branch was the only help the trackers were given. Over sandy country, they told MacFarlane the height and build of the two lost men. deducting this from the length of their strides, and the- impression of their boots in the sand. The tracks were followed to a point where the lost men had turned up a short time previously at a woodcutter’s camp. The two lost men would not believe that they had boon followed by the trackers, but were convinced when Sambo walked up and inspected the boots" of 20 men and picked out the two who had been lost. During the search, .12 soldiers who became separated frc'rn their mates, were also lost tempi warily, but by '“revving” the engine t \f their motortruck they made known \ their location.

BOWLING MASTERTON CLUB. COMPETITIONS ON SATURDAY. On Saturday the second round of the progressive pairs will be played by the Masterton Bowling Club. At 3.30 p.m. a champion fours game will be played between Cody, Kennedy. Maxwell. Morton (s) and Gordon, Percy, W. Reid and W, Hendry (s).’ ‘