“WILD MAN” ARRESTED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 265, 22 August 1949, Page 4

“WILD MAN” ARRESTED

Christened “Tarzan” by Police SOLVED LIVING PROBLEM (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (Ecc. 11.40.) SYDNEY, This Day. Police searching the scrub country near the suburb of Mar* oubra were confronted by a terrifying apparition when their portable searchlights revealed a “wild man” with long, black hair and ragged clothing dodgingf from hush to bush. He submitted quietly to arrest and will be charged with vagrancy. The man, whom the police immediately christened “Tarzan,” said he was 21, and was the son of a Sydney accountant. He had severed all family ties to lead the life of a nomad, and for over a year had camped in the scrub and eaten from garbage tins. He told the police he had solved the problem of living without money, as he had six rent-free camps under trees, using bracken and branches for mattress and coverings'. The camps were convenient to rubbish tips extending from the Randwick rifle range to the shores of Botany Bay. He wore an old military slouch hat trimmed down and adjusted as a rakish angle. Other clothing included an overcoat picked off dumps. His hair had grown to a great length, but he demonstrated to the police how he “kept it in trim” by means of old razor-blades.