PALM ISLAND TRAGEDY

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 February 1930, Page 3

PALM ISLAND TRAGEDY

MAN’S MIND UNHINGED. SYDNEY, February 6. Palm Island, the scene of the dreadful tragedy that was repotre don Tuesday last, is a little more than 20 miles from the nearest point of the Queensland mainland. It is about 30 miles from Townsville, and its usual tranquillity was turned to tragedy with amazing suddenness. The island abounds with tropical foliage and beautiful coconut palms give the little island a delightfully romantic touch. The three who are dead are Robert Henry Curry, who was superintendent of the aborigine station that was conducted on the island, and his two children, whose charred bodies were found in the ruins of their home that Curry is supposed to have set on fire. It is believed that Curry rankled under certain charges of having ill-treat-ed a number of aborigines. Worry over this is said to have unhnfged his mind and; so it was that on Sunday night lie ran amok and shot- the medical superintendent, Dr. C. Maitland Pattison, through the neck. Then, it appears, Mrs. Pattison was shot. The burning of the superintendent s residence followed, and later the school, the store and the office were set on fire. The inhabitants of the little island became terror stricken and two natives were despatched to the mainland with an urgent appeal for help. With the destruction Of the store there was a serious shortage of provisions, and as there was no sign of Curry everyone was in constant fear that worse was to follow. . It transpired subsequently that Curry left the island after he had committed his dreadful deeds. _ However, he returned in a boat fi’om a neighbouring island on the Monday, and he was shot dead by an aboriginal as he landed on the beach. As his children were not with him when he returned a .search was made of the ruins of his house, and it was then that the charred remains of the boy and the girl were discovered. Further inquiries showed that Curry had blown up the boat that was used to convey stores to the island, and he made his escape in a launch. Dr. Pattison was not rescued until Tuesday, when he was taken by the police to the mainland. He was in a serious condition. Dr. Pattison had previously had a brush with Curry, and as a result of certain complaints that had been made by Dr. Pattison an inquiry had been held by the authorities. It was Mr. Curry who established at Palm Island the aborigine penitentiary which has been in existence for nearly 12 years. Up till that time the island was practicaly uninhabited and was a veritable homeland of Nature. The white families comprised the superintendent and his family, the assistant superintendent and his wife, the doctor and his wife, Captain Hamilton (launch driyer (and his wife, and the storeman and his wife. The rest of the population, numbering about 800, are aboriginies, a section of whom are cannibals. A tall, slim, bronzed man, Mr. Currie had spent a life-time among the aborigines, and he was an authority on their customs. He celebrated native marriages, officiated at funerals and was Judge and jury in all the native litigation not sufficiently grave to warrant transference to the Townsville Police Court. His wife died about 12 months ago, and his daughter, about 18 years of age, was the only white girl on the settlement. She was school teacher io the children of the white residents. The son was about 12 yefirs of age. A few years ago a native, suspected’ of having been a witch doctor, was waylaid in a lonely part of the island by cannibals. At the first blow he fell to the ground and, pretending that he was dead, he deceived his assailants. After contenting themselves with cutting a rib out of his back fhey left him. He struggled back to the settlement, and to-day, although he has large gaps in his back, he fives hale and hearty on the island.