DEATH OF PROSPECTOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20882, 26 May 1931, Page 6

DEATH OF PROSPECTOR.

[A.LONE IN THE WILDS, j AUSTRALIAN TRAGEDY. / RESULT OF STARVATION. ;li ■ / jj 'A recent message from Alice Springs. !j fn Central Australia, stated that the rpmains of Mr. H. L. B. Lasseter, a prosi! pector, had been found in a shallow i grave, covered with boughs, by Mr. R. ij Buck, on March 29, at the head of the jj Shaw River, in the Betermann Ranges. Mr. Buck had been employed to search j! for.Mr. Lasseter as early as tho end of February, although little hope was held i of finding him alive. The old prospector died of starvation while waiting for his connections to arrive with rations. Ac!i cording to a story by the blacks he had jj lived' with them for 16 weeks, and had jj died some time in January, through bejj coming too weak to travel. Evidently Mr. Lasseter lost his camels in shortly after leaving his partner, Johns, and picked up with a tribe travelling ajjout tho Betermann Ranges. Mr. Buck left Hermannsburg mission ij station on February 24, and travelled west. On March she found some strange j! camel tracks, but was unable to find j: the animals. He was overtaken by thun-der-storms and bad weather, and one of lig camels was poisoned, but he was able to save it. He continued until March 15, j; although the weather was still bad, and

j'l the camels were becoming fractious. He .went to Ilbilla, where he found that some !{j •of his stores were missing, and then Started off in a south-westerly direction. jij Death Due to Starvation. On March 22 Mr. Buck reached Buttajl putta and water, after having been on a | dry stage for six days. There he learned '■ that a white man had lost his camels jji and died. He traced the blacks who had |i been with Mr. Lasseter, and questioned jj them. The only information procurable j was,that "white man live with them four j moons close up, and him finish two feller j moon next time jump up." Mr. Buck buried the body, and then, with the help if of blacks, discovered Mr. Lasseter's camps. i The last article the prospector possessed [ j nvas a camp sheet, which he gave to the Ij blacks for their help. He had broken his ij revolver so that the aborigines could not '.y use it. At various camps pieces of camp if rugs, a broken camera, and a note expressing the dead man's last wish were picked np. 'j About 150 blacks followed Mr. Buck about the old camps. Mr. Buck returned ! to Hermannsburg and reported the dis- !> coveyy to Mr. H. A. Heinrich, who came ?' to the conclusion that death was due to starvation through supplies not going forward as should have been arranged. The I blacks said that a claim was pegged by » Mr. Lasseter, but the camera films and tile majority of the papers were destroyed. Revolvers Drawn in Dispute. | Fears were first expressed for the safety t»f Mr. Lasseter at the beginning of this j! year. It was then learned that at the end of last October Mr. Johns, who was Mr. ij Lasseter's prospecting partner, returned !• to Alice Springs and said that he and Mr. ! Lasseter had quarrelled. He had departed i from a camp, leaving Mr. Lasseter with : two camels and about two months' supply of rations. | Mr. Johns' story included an account of a dispute in which revolvers were '! drawn, but he said that he disarmed Mr. | Lasseter. It was in searching for Mr. Lasseter that Messrs. \V. L. Pittendrigh j! end S. J. Hamre were lost in Central Australia when their aeroplane made a forced landing. They were found on January { by an Air Force search party. ■ Many unfortunate incidents have marred jj the efforts of goldseekers, inspired by Mr. Lasseter's story that in 1893, when he I was aged 17 years, he found a colossal reef | of gold in the region south-west of Ilbilla. ' One expedition, of which Mr. Lasseter was \ a member, left Alice Springs last June, • but its aeroplane, Golden Quest, crashed, i 'A new engine was installed, but the pilot ! made a forced landing afid had to return. Mr. Lasseter, who was a member of the Central Australia Gold Exploration Com- | pany, left Alice Springs to seek the reef, ■which he had not visited since he originj;: ally discovered it.