LOST IN THE BUSH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1434, 22 June 1868, Page 3

LOST IN THE BUSH.

An occurrence which, wc fear, will prove to have ended most tragically, has lately taken place in the neighbourhood of Port Charles. Mr. William Pollard, formerly of A r ictoria-street, saw sharpener, and late proprietor ef the Port Charles Mills, who had been at the Cabbage Bay settlement on business, left Mrs. Loligan's house at that place on the 27th of May ultimo, at 2 p.m., with the intention of proceeding to •Port Charles on foot by the bush track, a distance of sixteen miles. Before leaving he had said to Mrs. Loligan that he would have to make haste as his wife would be anxious about him. As he did not appear at the Port Charles Mills inr the usual course of time, and as it was known that he had left Mrs. Loligan's with the intention of going home, Mr. J. Stancliffe, manager of the mills, sent out a party in search of the missing man on the 12th of this month. The I party instigated a most careful search and traced Mr. Pollard on the track, which is very rough and difficult, to within six miles from the mills, when they came upon a place where some one had evidently camped for the night. The spot was underneath a nikau tree, the leaves of which had been broken down, evidently with a view to afford a rough shelter for the night, and Mr. Pollard's walkingstick, (easily recognized by some of the party as the one he usually walked with) and a match bos were found close to some leaves and twigs which had been piled up with a view to kindling a fire, the attempt having proved ineffectual. No other trace of the missing man could be found, and it is to be feared that after leaving his camp he must have taken a wrong direction. The ground is so broken and the bush so dense in the neighbourhood of Port Charles that any person getting oif the track would very : shortly become exhausted with making his way through the nudergrowth of supple-jacks, &c. About ten minutes walk from where the walk-ing-stick was found the Tort Charles Mills are , distinctly visible. !■■ ■■■ There is a faint hope that Mr. Pollard may r have struck the bed of a creek and followed it ' down to the sea, in which case he might fall in

with a Maori camp or perhaps some prospecting party. The protracted absence of Mr. Pollard is the cause of intense anxiety to his wife and one child, who, of course, entertain but a faint hope of his recovery.