DEATH IN SYDNEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 7

DEATH IN SYDNEY.

Young Explorer Famed for Work In Papua. HEROISM ON TRIP LAST YEAR. (Received 11 n.m.) SYDNEY, this day. Mr. Jack Hides, explorer and author, has died after several weeks in hospital suffering from pneumonia. He was 31 years of age and achieved an international reputation before he was 30 for his exploratory work in Papua.

The hardships he endured in a vain attempt to save the life of his friend, David Lyall, had lowered his resistance. Messrs. Hides and Lyall were leading an exploring expedition in Papua last year, when Lyall fell ill. Hides decided to make a dash for the coast down the Fly River. He had practically to carry Lyall a considerable part of the distance.

The party was attacked by’ beriberi, five of the natives dying, and’ 22 others suffering from the disease being rendered helpless. Hides took a risk in rafting the party through a gorge. He ran into a tidal bore and lost his canoe and everything in it, as well as almost drowning all of his party. The remainder of the journey’ was made under terrible conditions, and Lyall died after the expedition had reached the coast, on September 16.

Mr. Hides was born at Port Moresby and lived practically all his life in Papua. At the early age of 10 years he ran away from home and stayed for some time with the cannibals and head-hunters, and he lived in close contact with the natives ever after. He practically devoted himself to Papua and its people, and he wrote several books about this strange and wonderful country, supplied with enthusiastic prefaces from Mr. W. M. Hughes and Sir Hubert Murray. ■ He was in the Papuan service for 11 years, rising to the rank of assistant resident magistrate.

It was in this capacity that, in November, 1934, he was commissioned by the Government of Papua to explore and map the basin of the Purari River, where no white man had ever been before. With one white comrade, Mr. O’Malley, of Sydney, and a little party of natives, Hides plunged into the unknown interior, and for seven months was lost from view. At last he reappeared when given up for lost, and told strange and marvellous tales of the country through which he had fassed, recounting modestly but graphically thrilling adventures, during which he suffered many privations and his life was often in danger. What pulled him through were the fidelity of O’Malley, his own courage and his knowledge of the natives, whom he treated kindly and not as a bully. He was reported to have discovered vast deposits of gold.

IN UNIFORM.

Royal Princesses Take Salute of Girl Guides. PARADE AT WINDSOR CASTLE. (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, June 19. Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret appeared in uniform for the first time in public in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle, standing stifflv to attention to take the salute of 1000 girl guides as they marched past. Princess Elizabeth, as a member of the Kingfisher Company, wore a blue tunic skirt, while Princess Margaret was■ uniformed as a Brownie.