THE TAKAPAU MYSTERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3282, 29 July 1911, Page 5

THE TAKAPAU MYSTERY.

UNAVAILING SEARCH FOR MISSING MAN. DROWNING FATALITY FEARED. Last Sunday the manager of the Ihungia station informed the police by telephone that a man named William Douglas, a shepherd, had left that station on Saturday at 8.30 p.m. for Takapau, and that his horse had been found on Sunday about one hundred yards below the ford in one of the streams emptying into the Waiapu river with the saddle under its flanks. The rider was missing, and as the ford was a very dangerous one, .it is feared that ae has been drowned. Owing to the recent rains the streams and rivers are in heavy flood, and the crossing where the missing man evidently tried to cross was extremely dangerous to ford. As stated above, the stream, empties into the Waiapu river, which wis also in heavy flood, and it is probable that the unfortunate man was drowned, and liis body carried out to sea. Search parties have been out searching the stream where the accident is supposed to have occurred, and have searched right out to the mouth of the Waiapu river. Constables on tlie East Coast have been warned to keep a sharp look-out in case the body should be washed ashore, as bodies have been known to be washed up after being lost in the Waiapu River. The search is being kept up, and a brother of the missing man, who arrived at Waipiro Bay on Wednesday, is one of the party.