DISAPPEARANCE OF MR DIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 90

DISAPPEARANCE OF MR DIARY.

SOME CURIOUS RUMOURS. BELIEVED TO BE A LITE. ; Telegraphing on Friday evening, the Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton links says: — Inquiries made here to-day teno. to confirm the impression that Mr P. F. Darcy, secretary of the Federated Shearers' Union of New Zealand, who was supposed to have been drowned at Happy Valley, is still alive, but has left the Dominion. The authorities have .ascertained that before lie came to this colony he was engaged to a lady who lives in New South Wales, -and that lie corresponded with her until 1906, when she broke off the engagement and married another man. This apparently preyed upon his mind, and' he continually confided to friends with whom he was stop- i ping that there was "a cloud overhis life," i although he declined to disclose the nature I of his trouble. : i On. the Friday before going to Wellington Darcy drew £4-5 which was owing to him from the union, leaving a balance of ! £35 still due to him. He took all his , clothes away with him, and. the suit which ; was found on the beach was a cheap slop- j built one, which his friends were in the habit of bantering him about. An audit j of hie accounts shows everything to be cor- j It is believed that Mr Darcy left Welling- ! ton bv the Mokoia on March 15, bound for •Tahiti where he intends to take the steamer for San Francisco. It is alleged that he was recognised on the boat by an acquaintance, and was wearing goggles, and had shaved clean at the time. The impression that he has left for San Francisco is I strengthened by the fact that a letter ad- j dressed to a friend in CJhristchurch ha 6 been picked up and handed to the police, in which the writer, signing himself "E. Carey," asks that all. papers intended for him should be forwarded to the General Post Office at San Francisco, and promising to remit money in payment of expenses. A comparison of the writing leaves little doubt that it is Daroy's, and the authorities are confident that for some unknown reason he has elected to leave the Dominion surreptitiously. ' to hie disappearance it was general! tr expected that the annual conference ■ of* the union would have to be postponed, j Mr Daroy, however,. left the books and accounts of the union in such perfect order that the conference will not be delayed, and -will commence on Tuesday, next at Wei- j jington., as originally arranged. I