GRUESOME FINDS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19787, 10 March 1927, Page 7

GRUESOME FINDS

HUMAN TEETH AND BONES FATE OF NATIVE PARTY EVTDENCVE OF A TRAGEDY. [By Telegraph—Per Press Aasn.—Copyright.] BERTH, March 9. The Rev. E. R. Gribble, head of the Forest River Mission, giving evidence before the Royal Commission inquiring into the alleged killing of aborigines by the police in the country north and west of the Forest River district, sMid that 16 men and 13 women who were reported missing in September last were frequent visitors to the mission, but they had not been seen since June last. Evidence of a Tragedy. Witness said that in August, accompanied by Inspector Mitchell and several natives, he left to investigate the reports which had become so persistent. They found a camp where the police had evidently been for some time. There were unmistakable signs of the natives having been present, but no trace of their leaving. He was confident that there had been a tragedy, but Inspector Mitchell seemed to think otherwise. Mr Gribble alleged that where the men had been to death there was a small tree to which the prisoners had evidently been fastened. Dark stains were still visibile though efforts had been made to clean them up. They fol lowed the tracks of three native women and three shot horses for about six miles up the Forest River until they discovered the remains of a large fire at the foot of a tree. Among the ashes found were a quantity of teeth and fragments of charred bones. The tracks of the women led right to the spot, and although they followed the horses’ tracks further there were no signs of the women’s tracks.