“MISSING” MYSTERIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17525, 30 April 1925, Page 6

“MISSING” MYSTERIES.

ATTEMPTS AT SOLUTION. I HUNT FOR A MILLIONAIRE. | Missing! The word suggests all sorts of possibilities, and hence a great hunt is often mad £ for a person whose where- ! abouts are a mystery. A search for a youth who disappear- ; ed a few years ago in London, was continued for nearly two months, and cod more than £IOOO. His description was advertised in the newspapers and on hoardings, and inquiries were made at hospitals, hotels, boarding-houses, recruiting and shipping offices, and other places all over the country. Yet ail .he time he was in the army. Still more comprehensive was the search for a London woman doctor, whose body was ultimately discovered by chance in Richmond Parle. A special feature of the efforts was the circulation of thousands of handbills among cabmen, waiters, hotel servants and the On different lines was another remarkable hunt. A young farmer having disappeared from the parish of Craswell, near, Hay, South Wales, search parties were organised on a large scale, and these scoured the neighbouring mountains. All efforts, however, were unavailing. Twelve years afterwards, liis relatives discovered him in Exmoutb Asylum. In a similar hunt, eleven hundred, miners spread themselves over the Aberdare Valley, and ultimately found the object of their search—-a little buy —m a railway van about a quarter oi a mile from his home. To find a boy missing from the Rhondda Valley an exploration committee v. as formed and a fund was raised. Alter the searen, which cnde-l m tin discovery ul the boy's body on ! the highest peak in the Glamorgan j mountains, the balance m hand \as ; opposed of by presenting gold med.us ] hearing appropriate inscripttont? to t he ! more prominent oi me explorers. | lu the Merthyr Vale some years ago ! iijui place cmk: of the biggest hums of ihis kind evei known- Six hundred colliers act uni in search ul a buy who had disappeared. A a they v.ere unsuccessful, three hundred others rook, up the quest, on the 1 olio wing day, to be succeeded by a fresh batch oi eight hundred on the morrow. Hut ail measures were in vain. A house-to-house collection was then made, and, with the proceeds, a diver was obtained from Cardiff to search the deep pools in the Taff. Again no trace of the child was found. Twentyone days after his disappearance, however. his body was discovered iu the Perhaps the greatest of all searches for the missing is one that is still in progress. It is for Ambrose J. Small, a millionaire theatre owner, of Toronto. who disappeared in December, 11)19. One evening lie left liis office ii the Grand Opera House and vanished. Since .then every due to his whereabouts has boon followed up, regardless of expense. Eleven months alter 1 is disappearance, for instance, a. caretaker reported to Hie police that lv I apparently heavy from a motor-ear to I a refuse dump. This story, even if j true, did not amount to much. But j a steam navvy was obtained, and with I it every yard of ground .near the place pointed out by tbs caretaker was turoJ ed over. i In such attempts to clear up the i mystery large sums have been spent. * A Toronto detective has travelled more j than thirty thousand miles in tracing rumours to tlieir source in Canada and ihc United States, while a short time , • ago negotiations were opened with a man whprofessed lo know definitely 1 that Mr Small had been kidnapped.