The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-01-22 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE IN AUSTRALIA.  (From Wednesday's Times, Jan. 19.)  The Australasian (Melbourne, November 13) says that no success has attended the investi,Ations made into the disappearance of Mr. -Lamont Young, the Government Geologist, who was sent to report on the Bermagui gold field, and of:the party by whocnhe . . was accompanied. "It is not.: only an unsolved; but a perplexing mystery, which urges itself the more peremptorily on attention from the shade of suspicion of crime which hangs over the matter. The case is one of an extraordinary character. Mr. Young went on the day of his arrival at Bermagui to cross the bay in a centre-board boat. Two days afterwards the boat was found jammed among rocks on the coast, about ten miles to the northward, and no trace could be discovered of its occupants. Among the hypotheses that were devised for their disappearance was, that they had been drowned, and the boat had drifted ashore. Later and closer examination of the spot, however, appears to dispose of this conjecture and to demonstrate that the boat was carefully navigated to the shore between the rocks, and that the party had a meal on shore after landing. The discovery of some bullet-holes in the boat and of a copper cartridge case on. the sand suggested the thought that the party had been attacked andmurdered. This, again, seems to be refuted by careful examinption, which fails to discover any traces to support such a theory—traces which might confidently be looked for if such a crime had been committed. There remains the fact that since that time, the 9th of October, 1880, all the members of the party, five fir number, and all traces of them, have utterly disappeared. The coast has been searched, the country inland has been searched, but nothing can be learnt of the missing men after that landing at Corunna Point. The country inland is inhabited by settlers, and is fenced for some miles back from the shore, so that the loss of men in the bush seems to be a most improbable supposition. At present the earlier suspicion of foul play seems to be dissipated, and absolutely no suggestion can be made to take its place. The case is a most Mysterious and uncomfortable one, and it is to be hoped that the Government will not relax its endeavours to throw some light on the strange problem involved." Correspondent writes that since the date of this article a telegraphic reply from Lord A. Loftus, Governor of New South Wales, dated the 20th of December, to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Kimberley, has been received, stating that every effort to clear up the mystery at Bermagui (which is on the coast, 180 miles south of Sydney) has proved fruitless; and a, private telegram of still later date, the 27th of December, shows that still no traces had been discovered.  t A- gentleman of the Mines Department was at once and specially deputed to thoroughly investigate all the circumstances, of the case on the spot, and was engaged for Inany days in his task with the aid of efficient police officers and black trackers. The Government at Sydney have also offered a reward of £2OO for such information as will elucidate the matter and lead to the conviction of persons who may have been guilty of any violence. Paragraphs in the Australian papers show that the practice of crimping seamen had been brought to the notice of the Governments at Sydney and Adelaide. This fact, joined to the evidence of the party having been surprised, and the impossibility of otherwise satisfactorily explaining this mysterious occurrence, has led to the strong belief on tile part of those most deeply interested that .the whole five. persons have been kidnapped and taken off in some vessel. It is hoped that the wide circulation of this narrative in The Times may, by drawing attention in foreign parts to vessels arriving there from the coasts of Australia, lead to the unravelling of the mystery and the restoration of the missing persons to their wives and families. Their names are Mr. Lamont Young, Government Geological Surveyor, Sydney, Associate Royal School of Mines, and F.G.S. ; Mr. Max Schneider, Government Mines Department, Sydney; and three boatmen, named Casey, Towers, and Lloyd.