MOURNED AS DEAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22261, 8 November 1935, Page 8

MOURNED AS DEAD

OLD PEOSPECTOE MANY RICH FINDS FORTUNE SQUANDERED MEETS SON AFTER 34 YEARS [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT J SYDNEY. Nov. 2 The lure of gold hns brought together at Tennant's Creek golclfield, Central Australia, a man who was mourned as dead 34 years ago and his Bon. They are William and John Garnett. To-day they share a hut on the Hammerback mine. In 190.1 William Garnett left Canowindra, New South Wales, and in time arrived in Central Queensland, where at the sapphire field near Emerald he found gems worth £20,000. Word then reached his wife and son in Canowindra that ho had been killed by a fall of earth, and when newspapers confirmed the story Mrs. Garnett broko up tho home and took tho son to Sydney. I.osing trace of his family, Garnett spent his riches in extravagant living. He theh tried tho tin fields at Maraniboy in the Northern Territory and again met with, success. In the intervening years ho has . fossicked' about the goldfields near Kalgoorlie; has crossed the 1100 miles of desert no'rth-east to Tanami with his donkey team; has come near to perishing for lack of water; has placed Barrow Creek on tho map by his discovery of an extensive tin, lead and silver mine; and has discovered a gold mine, 60 miles', south of Tennant's Creek, which is now being developed by the Rothschild Gold Corporation. Gold, sapphires, tin, lead, silver and copper have contributed to tho fortune of he has won and spent. The 'last £ISOO that came his way sufficed for three months in Adelaide, and after .that he went back to his donkeys with little save a handkerchief in his pocket. - John Garnett travelled to the Hamtoierback mining camp recently and he saw an elderly man standing near a fire over which hung a billy. Garnett / asked if any work was offering, and the eldetly man replied that there was " none. The billy began to boil and he asked Garnett to drink a mug of tea with him. Both men talked of famous mines and fields, and the elder man mentioned that early in the century he Had worked on the sapphire fields of <' Central Queensland. Garnett knew that his father, whom he believed had died about 1900. had worked on those fields, - and he asked the elderly man if he •"•had known a William Garnett in those The other man answered: " I . reckon I was the only William Garnett on those fields." Explanations followed and then the reunion.