A DUNEDIN HERMIT.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19862, 25 February 1930, Page 10

A DUNEDIN HERMIT.

FOUND IN CRITICAL CONDITION. [TKB FBBSS Special Berrtoe.] DUNEDIN, February 24. For many years the hut of Mr Ben Rudd, popularly known as the "Hermit of Flagstaff," has been well known to residents of Dunedin. On Sunday a visit was paid to the hut, which is near the sanatorium on the Whare Flat road, by Mr and Mrs Alex G. Stiatton, of Mornington, who found the hermit in a critical condition. He was very ill and had been unable for some time to fend for himself, and. had consequently been without attention of any sort. Mrs Stratton stayed at the hut while her husband went to Ashburn Hall to telephone to the police. Several constables, the ambulance, and Dr. 11. F. Wilson, of the hospital staff, were dispatched, but it was found that the ambulance could not make its way to the hut, and it had to be left in a paddlock about a mile and a half aWay. "With the aid of the ambulance driver and several civilians, the constables finally succeeded in carrying the sufferer through the bush to the ambulance, and he was conveyed t£» the hospital where he lay all night in n critical condition, but was reported this afternoon to be a little easier. Mr Rudd, who is 87 years of age, is suffering from the effects of old age.