MAULED BY A LION

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 February 1929, Page 9

MAULED BY A LION

HOW BERT RALTON DIED. All those who heard the Havana Jazz Band in New Zealand in 1926, and who met its popular conductor, Mr Bert Ralton, received a great shock when a report came through that he had been killed in Rhodesia vdiilst lion-hunting. The details of the affair never reached New Zealand in a concrete form, or, if they did, were never published, but Mr F. M. Mellish, the Rhodesian, who came upon Mr Ralton after his encounter with the lion, is at present in New Zealand, gave full particulars. It seems that Mr Ralton had met a Mr and Mrs Johnston, when staying at Merkle’s Hotel, Salisbury, and they had invited him out to their ranch on the Hunyani River, some eighteen miles out of town. Thither Mr Ralton repaired to get a glimpse of the real Rhodesia. On the second Friday in November, Mr Mellish, accompanied by about 150 “boys'’ on transfer, was treking along near the Hunyani drift, when their ears were startled with loud shrieks and cries for help. They at once dashed to the spot, to find a stranger (Ralton), terribly mauled from tho shoulder-blade down to the heart. So bad was his heart that it was seen that it was almost inevitable that he must bleed to death. In the meantime the lion had been shot by one of the boys. Ralton, although he must have known how seriously he was wounded, asked for a cigarette, and after a few puffs, he took his ukelele and commenced singing “I’ll Always Be Loving You.” Ralton was conveyed into town, and medical help was summoned as soon as possible, aiftl an operation was performed, but blood' poisoning intervened, and as the result he passed away. When the man was discovered in the precarious situation related above. Mr Mellish made a point of first getting his name and who he was, and Jialton told him that the members of

bis band were at Mejkle’s Hotel. Subsequently an inquest was held, the verdict being that death had been caused by blood-poisoning, due to deceased being mauled by a lion’s claws. At the inquest, Mr Johnston related the circumstances of meeting Mr Ralton and inviting him to stay at the ranch. On th© fatal afternoon Ralton had wandered off with his “uke,” a saxophone and a shot-gun. When the lion came upon him he evidently attempted to shoot it with the shotgun, but in the attempt accidentally poured a charge of shot into his own left leg. So wounded, he-was an easy mark for the lion, who would surely have finished him there and then, but for the rescue effected by Mr Mellish and his party.