ALL NIGHT IN BUSH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21068, 30 December 1931, Page 12

ALL NIGHT IN BUSH.

SMALL CHILD'S EXPERIENCE. LONG, ANXIOUS SEARCH. Throughout Sunday night, November 22, which was intensely cold in the mountains, Ray Welch, aged 2J, years, of Westgarth, was lost in the bush near Belgrave, Victoria. He was found at daylight on Monday morning after he had been missing for 12 hours. The child was taken to Belgrave on Sunday by his parents, who were visiting friends at. a week-end house on tho road to Monbulk. Several families went to the house, for the day, and Ray played with other children. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon he was missed, and it was thought that he had wandered into the bush and become lost. Under the direction of Constable Knowles, townspeople of Belgrave joined Mr. and Mrs. Welch and their friends in a search for the child. With torches and flares about 50 persons scoured the bush until 11 o'clock at night without finding the boy. In many places the scrub was impenetrable, and it was feared that the child had fallen into the Monbulk Creek and been drowned. Arrangements were made to drag the creek in tho morning. Mr. Welch resumed the search before daylight, and at 5 o'clock he found his son sitting on the back verandah of an unoccupied week-end house, three-quarters of a mile from where ho was missed. Tho child was unharmed, but he was frightened. He was warmly clad, but ho had had nothing to eat since mid-day on Sunday.