CONSTABLE'S BRAVERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19384, 20 July 1926, Page 11

CONSTABLE'S BRAVERY.

EXPLOIT IN THE " OUT-BACK." ABORIGINAL MURDERER CAUGHT LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE. [FROM OCK OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] SYDNEY, July S. In song, verse and story, writers have extolled the bravery and endurance of the North-west Mounted Police of Canada, and here in Australia, as well as other countries, their exploits are read with bated breath. But no writer has yet arisen to do plain justice to the exploits of Australia's own north-west mounted — the men who are trying to uphold the white man' law in, our tropical, uncivilised, lonely, unpopulated north-west. Only by an occasional report in the press of some outstanding feat do Ave coddled southerners realise that on the | rim of this continent in the north men j are stilt doing man-sized work taming ! the wild blacks and curbing lawless whites that the country might be prepared for the coming of decent white settlers in increasing numbers. One of these amazing feats has just been circulating in the columns of the southern newspapers and ' its reading makes one wonder why no j Robert Service,or James Oliver Curwood • has yet arisen to record the deeds of ! the northern guardians of our peace. j Heart of the Jungle Country. The hero of the latest exploit is C'on- j stable Robert Cameron, who went to join the Northern Territory police at Darwin in 1913. Since that time he has captured 14 murderers, white, black and yellow, and brought them to the stout confines of the Darwin gaol. The capture in the latest instance was remarkable, having been effected in rough mountain country where pursuit on horseback was impossible. Some months ago an aborigine who had been convicted for murder escaped from the prison at Darwin. 4» desperate and cunning character, search was immediately made for him, but this failed. A few weeks ago word was brought by a native friendly with the police that the wanted man had rejoined his tribe in the heart of the jungle country near the Mary River, some hundreds of 'miles from Darwin. Constable Cameron was rie tailed to capture the escapee, and without white companions, attended merely by three blacktrackers, Cameron set off with packhorses. After days of travelling he reached the refugee's country, and then came the problem of finding the wanted man's camp. Cameron's provisions by this time had become exhausted, and though game was abundant, he dared not fire a gun for fear of frightening the quarry. This lasted three days, and then Cameron located the camp. The wanted man's vainty proved his undoing. While in gaol ho made a leather belt to which he affixed brass buttons. Cameron saw an aborigine wearing this belt, and knowing he must, have come from the wanted man's camp he followed. . Cameron: came, upon the camp and the problem then became one of surprising the inmates. He decided to by making a noisy frontal attack with his several packhorses and blacktrackers, with rattling baggage and equipment, while the constable alono and on foot made a wide detour and entered the camp from the rear. Seizure of the Murderer. A swarm of dogs was busily engaged in barking and snarling at the approaching packhorses, a»d the aborigines were ready to disappear in thick scrub down a gorge when Cameron crawled through grass right up to the camp and actually seized the escaped murderer before the others were aware of his presence. Then a life and death struggle ensued on the edge of the gorge between the athletic, wiry prisoner and the constable, who was in danger of spears from the other blacks. Cameron was weak with hunger through his three-days abstinence from food. One of his fingers was broken in the struggle to handcuff the prisoner, but he hung on, and before the aborigines recovered from their surprise the trackers making the noisy frontal attack arrived with guns. The most dangerous pyt of Cameron's .task was thus completed,' but more than a week passed before the arduous return journey to Darwin was completed and the captured aborigine was again safely under lock and key.