THE NORTHERN TERRITORY TRAGEDY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19270, 6 September 1924, Page 8

THE NORTHERN TERRITORY TRAGEDY.

The anxiety which was excited by the receipt, five or six weeks ago, of the report that two white women, survivors from the wreck of the Queensland steamer Douglas Mawson, were in the hands of a tribe of blacks, reputed to be savages, in the Northern Territory of Australia, is now succeeded by a feeling of acute suspense. It is established that the women are alive and their whereabouts are known. How have they been treated since the Douglas Mawson disappeared in March last? and is it possible to effect the rescue of them? The relief expedition which was sent out by the Federal Government must have made better progress than was anticipated. It left Darwin on August 6, just twenty days after the member for the Northern Territory had read in the Federal House of Representatives a telegram oi dramatic import, furnishing a confirmation of rumours . respecting the fate of the passengers and crew of the Douglas Mawson. The story, which the Government deemed sufficient to warrant immediate action on its part, was gathered from members of other tribes by natives attached to a party engaged in exploration under Dr Wade, oil technologist to the Federal Government. Caledon Bay, on the west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, has been named as the landing place of the Douglas Mawson’s company and as the scene of the enactment of the rumoured tragedy in the spearing of the men by the blacks and the abduction of the two women passengers. The Government efforts

to get the relief expedition despatched with a minimum of delay were not entirely successful, for circumstances seemed to conspire in a curious manner to delay the departure of the auxiliary schooner Huddersfield, which was chartered to leave Port Darwin with, an armed party organised ■by the Administration of the Northern Territory.Apparently the vessel had been in good condition up to the very moment when her services were urgently required. Then one trouble developed after another—the oil engine required “fixing”; the captain disagreed with the owners about the storage of the oil fuel, and walked off the ship; and at the last moment the radio telegraphist who had been engaged declined to go on the ground that tho wireless plant had been hastily placed together and was untested and unreliable. Very uncomplimentary references were circulated respecting the speed of the vessel. The estimates of her capabilities varied slightly, but the best of them were very low. , Later it was reported that the rescue ship had made about 80 miles in three days, averaging about a knot an hour in smooth water, and that, m week after her departure, she had been sighted 200 miles from Darwin. Now that the expedition has reached its destination, the public interest in it has naturally been greatly heightened. There is no telling what turn the sequel to the tragedy of the loss of tha Douglas Mawson may take, especially in view of the reputation which the tribesmen possess, but it is at leastpermissible to hope for the best.