LOST IN THE BUSH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19170, 9 November 1925, Page 11

LOST IN THE BUSH.

CHILD'S UNENVIABLE PLIGHT. FOUND TEN MILES FROM HOME The residents of St. Helens, Tasmania, were deeply concerned when an alarm was given one Sunday evening that Robert .Fletcher, aged 8 years, son of Mr, and Mrs. Ronald Fletcher, was lost. The child, who had not been well on the Saturday, lives on tho outskirts of the township. On Sunday he crossed the road into the bush directly opposite his home to gather chips for his mother, lie returned twice with the fuel, and set out again between 2.30 p.m. and 3 p.m. for a further supply, but did not return home. As a search by the family proved unsuccessful, Trooper Blair was informed of the absence of the child, and he quickly gathered some 30 volunteers together. The weather conditions were exceptionally severe. A gale was blowing with a driving ram. The party searched the bush country near the Fletcher home until the early hours of Monday, and it was then decided to resume the search in daylight. On the resumption 20 men on horseback and numerous parties of men and women on foot, numbering about 100, joined in the search, and these numbers were constantly augmented. About midday the searchers came upon a heap of chips which the boy had emptied out of the sugar bag he had taken with him. This was within half-a-mile. of his home, and by the roadside. No further evidence was found until the afternoon, when footprints were discovered, and followed for j five miles, to the centre of the tin work- j ings, but they were then lost. A mem- ! ber of the party picked up the footmarks ! again about 3 p.m., seven miles from St. j Helens. The men followed up the tracks | until they came to an old dam, ten miles | from St. Helens.

At length a searcher discovered the object of the search lying on the ground with his frail body supported by a tree. His head was entirely covered with a cardigan jacket he had been wearing, and his feet were enclosed in the sugar bag. The child's legs were frozen to the hips, and it is improbable that he would have been able to regain his feet. He was brought to St. Helens, the party, on tho way being met by a doctor. Despite the shock and privations endured by the bov during his 24 hours' solitude in the bush, it is expected that he will not be any the worse for his experience.