YOUNG BARLOW.

NZ Truth, 4 January 1908, Page 8

YOUNG BARLOW.

WAS HE MURDERED? What the Boy's Bandmaster Says. > Singularly Sinister Suspicions. Will the Police Probe the Mystery ? The other day the Coroner returned an open verdict m the case of the boy Oswald W. G. Barlow, 14 years of age, who left his home, Paddington, Sydneyf, on Friday, December 6, and nothing of whose whereabouts was afterwards known ] until his dead body, with a large j hatpin piercing the left breast, was i found by a fisherman floating 300 or 400 yards out from the rocks m the ! ?&a off Queenscliff Point, between Manly Beach and freshwater, on Wednesday, December 11. "SUICIDE OR MURDER',?" That was the question that was being asked, and the question that 'Will still be asked. The popular impression is that the police to relieve themselves of the necessity of sheeting home the crime to the perpetrator of it, or to escape the discredit of not being able to locate the perpetrator of it, have bee» moving heaven and earth to have it thought that it was a case of suicide. * ' "' One of the witnesses at the inquiry was Mr L. De Groen, the popular band conductor. "I haven't the least doubt m the world," said Mr . De : Groen, m the course of some remarks to a i metober of "Truth" ,staG relative to the sad affair, subsequent to ■ the inquiry, "that the boy was murdered. Let the police •say what they like ! The boy was murdered— BRUTALLY MURDERED. The police may ask, if they care to do so, what motive anyone could have had for taking the life of such a boy, quiet and inoffensive, and so far as is known without an enemy m the world. I do not care whether : it can, or cannot, be shown that 1 the boy had a dozen enemies or no enemies. All I know is that the hoy did not suicide— that he was murdered, mysteriously and brutally murdered." Even on the grounds of motive, so ! far. as motives are evident to the public mind, Mr De Groen insists that even m this respect the theory j is m favor of the boy being mur- j dered. No one, it may seem, had any motive m murdering him. On the other hand, there was even less motive for the boy taking his own life. That is the way Mr De ,Groen puts it. It may seem impossible to s the police that anyone would murder the boy. It is EVEN MfoRE IMPOSSIBLE —to Mr De Groen, who about the time of the boy's disappearance was probably more m touch with him, his aims and hopes, than any other living sduWto imagine that the boy ; himself would take his life. Young Barlow was a musician. His brother, a little the elder of the two, was also a musician. The father took them to Mr De Groen early m September last. Prior to this they had been with Mr Bentley. The other .-vreek the elder-broth-er was <sent away by Mr De Groen to New Zealand with a band of 15 m connection with West's Pictures. Oh Saturday afternoon, November 30, young Barlow— or "Ossy," as he was affectionately called — attended a rehearsal at the Glaciarium m, connection with the exhibition there of '■. West's Pictures, which were to open to the public the following S,atur-/ day, December 7. Mr De Groenf speke most encouragingly to the boy, telling him that he \ HAD DONE VERY WELL, that .he was to work hard during the week, and appear m the band jthe following Saturday night. , This, indeed, was the dream of. "Ossy s" life. He was to get what was practically his first engagement. As a fourteen-year-old boy he was going to receive £3 a week, and would walk into the building, proudly taking his place with the grownup members of the band. "Ossy" went home that Saturday afternoon with Mr Foreman, one of Mr De Groeh's leaders, who was also living out Paddington way; The little fellow's cup of joy was overflowing. He talked of his music, and of his prospects ; and his supreme joy seemed to be m the thought that out of the salary he was to get he would be able to help his almost stone-blind father— an old^ musician himself, by the way, who played under Mr De Groen twenty years ago. THAT WAS THE LAST Mr De Groen and Mr Foreman saw of the boy. Nothing occurred m the boy's home between v that date and Friday, December 6, the day he left there, to be seen alive by his family no more. How, then, can it be imagined, asks Mr Dc Groen, that this boy i --in < the face of the affection expressed , for his father, and the fact that the following night was . to see the"* fulfilment of all his dearest wishes—i Calmly and deliberately sui-

cided ? Mr De G-roen does not believe it. He knew the boy as very ; few could know him. And it would need all the saints living and dead, says Mr De G-roen, to convince him ihat the bQy was not murdered— mysteriously and brutally rnsurdered. Mr E"e Qroen, too, holds the opinion Uo does altogether independently of the strengthening facts that it ' was practically a physical impossibility for the boy to use the hatpin m the way it was found, plunged into his breast, and afterwards throw himself into the water. Let the polioe get to work. Let thorn not consider that with the verdict of the:- Coroner the whole 'thing is settled. '.Let .them.' not imagine that the public, will consider that all tnat can be done by them has 'been done. "Truth" believes with Mr De Groen that ALL 'THE "FACTS POINT v $o the boy being murdered. Let the police then go on doing their best jto get the murderer, or murderers. Perhaps they will never succeed m doing this. But, whether they do or not, it would be much more to the [public's satisfaction to know . that at any rate the police tried their best' to satisfactorily clear up or sheet home the mysterious deed.. For the police to merely cease their efforts, thinking the public had forgotten the affair, or that they expected nothing further from, those who are the guardians of their safety, would be the height of criminality, and a disgrace to the Police Department— from top to bottom.-' Sydney ft' "Truth; """ .4