Northern Territory Times (Darwin, NT : 1927 - 1932), Friday 5 August 1927, page 1


POLIGE COURT

Alleged Criminal LHieî

The case in which Mounted Con-stable Clapp, of Marranboy, sued Donald McKinnon, editor of tne Northern Standard, for allegro criminal H'bel, came befoie tie P'.' win Police Court on Tuesday.

Mr Braham, appeared to prosecute

Mr Barratt for the defence

John Alfred Porter, joiurna'i-j.-, -f Darwin, sakli he knew d.efenclan'; , s publisher of the Northern Stan :.-<r I publishod at Darwin. The pa.»-, r circulated throughout the Norlnein Temitory and the soulhern capital cities. The copy obtained dated ISr.n of January 1927 was purchased by him from Joe Roberts who is age.it for the Standard.. The article 1>QIA ed M C Clapp refers to cona'.ib'e Clapp who is or was stationei at Marranboy.

Arthur Robinson Clapp, mounted constable, on 18th January last, now a member of the North AusttOiia Police Force, said I was a memoer of N T Police Force from Sept. 15, 1925. I a,m the informant. I tnok over Marranboy Police Force n December 24th 1926. I have been in charre up till the present time, I now read the article in the Nor the.m

Standard dated January 18th 1!)27 headed "M C-Clapp found".

On January 16 last about 7 p m accompanied by Sisters Jansen, and Button, nurses in charge of Maran-boy hospital I went for a ride. Losing account of time we left it late for our return journey. At1 er

travelling some distance I realised. I was bushed and ca,mpe,d till day-light next morning. It was then de-cided to travel east and if possitJc pick up our tracks of the night be-fore. This being carried, out ibro ignt the two ladies and myself to Mi' Jameson's camp at 7.40 a m. As-certaining that no fresh horses we^e available a black boy was loaned to ,me at my request. This boy p'need the two ladies and myself on the Marranboy-Urallba road. We <\)und this road to be clear and, defined as I had been informed, it would be. As wa were then well awara as to our whereeibouts the blackboy was sent back. After going some little dis-tance along the road Sister Ya^sen

supported by Sister Button informed mo of theij desire for .me to 'eave them and. <,o ahoad, and obtain fresn .horses u.ru], refreshments. Th'? 1

refupp,d io do. Lalor I was again in-formed 'by the sisters that they rle siieid me to leave thtm and go aher.d and obtain fiesh horsas and refresh-ments. M,u,ch against my will I con-sented; to this course of action Cn st impressing upon the two ladies i* ,.t on no account were they to leave the ror,d. After leaving the sistets and .travelling some distance my "¡vise F'tcVcnly tiïcrV Rraüíir.y (he excess i'.-p hont nf 1he .''ay and that Iho ii-k of fonVei-'rg the horse was v< r> creat T removed the saddi'e and tir>d the horse up. I then set out for Marranboy a distance of approximate ly 16 miles by foot. Failng to fir.d water I became deeply concern&d .-s of the ultimate effect of the lack of water upon the two sisters. I cor.':o ued to p,u,sh on further. Whe i 4 miles from Marranboy I found wat*.T At this water ho1© I was met ? v Mr George Jones. I made a certain le quest to him. However he .did not carry out my request and went on to meet the two ladies. Later Mr George Jones passed me some two miles nearer Marranboy going fo cany out ,my previous req icsñ. Shortly after Mounted Constable Hall and party arrived. Ascertaining that they had refreshments for the sisters-food and water-I gave 'hem to understand the direction \vh"re

they would meet the sisters. They left me a horse to rid,e into Marran-boy. A few moments afterwards "".fr Geo. Fisher came along and 'he ob-tained AlVniich's motor lorry I loan-ed Mr Geo. Fisher for the purpo',» of obtaining the Larry, the horse lelt with me. The Lorry arrived witfün ? few moments idriven by Mr All m VA a.nd C J Burns as a passenger. I boarded) the lorry und travî'linj; along the road we vant sisters Yanscii and Button a very short time after Mounted Const. Hall ard paity had met them. Sisters Yansen and Biur.cn got on the lorry. The whole |»A"ty then partook of refreshments ne.-.r a waterhole some little distance oí the road. Sisteis Yansen ard Button ar/| myseli were diïven to Marranboy an,^ arrived at about 6 pm, January 17th. I paid, Alhnich for hire of lorry

out of .my own private money. It wos an exceedingly hot day. I walks.!, «is .near as I can say between 14 and lo

mu'es. I was then in a more or less exhausted condition due princvally to l,ack of water. I cndeavoure.l to keep up about 3^2 to> 4 miles an hour It does not include Hooking for water Thora was no possibility of the nurses losing their way when left as the road was cleary- defined and CMI.U not miss it unless they <.e\k> eratcïy ],oft it.

Elina Yansen, nurse, at Marrai') >y, said, she remembered 16th January l:ist when Pt 7 p m with si»Vi:r 'Lutton r.nc". Conatab'e ClF.jm she left the Ponoa Home to go for a rids >jn horseback. We commenced on ihe NorLh End Road, later crossing io the Uralba road. We proceeded, along this for ¿ome distance ,.i ' then decided to return home. We had gone some distance when we found that we were bushed. For some lime we reconnoitred but finding that we had not struck the right track wo de aided to camp. The horses were un-saddled by Constable Clapp. They were somewhat tired and; in need of o rest. A fire was lightc-d (It wo-.1.J be al;out 3 and 4 in the morning. At day VI:; lit our horses were resad.V.cJ and we decided-to go in an easiony direction as we thought we had u<'ilQ too far west. Going this w<:y wc crossed the tracks we I* ad, made ni mi o hours previously. Aibott 7.40 a m we came to Mr Jamieson's camp. We had. si drink of water and finding that no fresh horses were available -.va proceeded, being led, by a black b« > who was loaned us at Mr Clapp*s in-quest. He preceded us for a mil.3 to where the Marranboy Ura\ba r«.d commenced;. Here we found a well defined cart road. We then sent the boy ba,ck. After we had gone some distance my hoi'se show-ed signs of fatigue I then requested Constable Cllapp , to my horse showed signs of fatigue I "then requested Constable Clapo, lo leave ¡us and go on into Marranboy and procure fresh horses and wat»!.-. He refused. After going some further distance I repeated my ro reciuest and Sister Button also did so, and he unwillingly consented to go, first impressing o.n us not to leave the road and to follow las

tracks. We went some distance anl our horses being tired Sister Button and I decided to rest awhile, aftei wards continuing, and some ti:m,e afterwards came across Constable Clapp:s horse .un-saddled and tied to a tree. We rasaddled it and led it with ours Wc contained on our way. Tow t (is afternoon, our horses being tired we retired to a tree at the roadside. As there was an appearrnce of wUe. near at hand we walked down. Wt. found no water a.nd returned. Afcor resting we remounted our herse j ,-nd I-C'CVJ back 50 yards to where thoi J wes a well-defined cattle pad. Wo thought this would 'cry iikey le.ni to either a camp or water. W3 :ie elded, to follow the pad one to left and one to right, being away for ino space of about 10 minutes and then to return whether we found w.iior or not. Before we parted, ¡¿iste" Button wrote a note and. tied it to the saddle of the third horse te!ling of our intention should anyone pav-i in that direction Sister Button w.i. in the act of tying the third horse io a tree by the roadside when &..;.? s tabJe Hall and his partv arrived. Wo were given water and fresh no' .e s and continued our way to Mairan!):»' We had gone perhaps 100 yards when AUjnich's lorry arrived in which was Constable Clapp andj Mr Burns. We dismounted and got into the lorry and; were taken to a permanent water hole some little distance away We were given refreshments and after a short rest continued! on our way \n the lorry. We would be about 8 miles from Marranboy when the Lorry .met us. We would have ¡been another 4 or 5 hours by our horses had not Mr Clapp not gone ahead. We had no food since 6 o'clock on Sun-day. It was between 4 or 5 p m when Mr Hall's party arrived. The last drink of water was at twenty to 8 in the morning at Mr Jamieson's

camp.

Lity Winfred Button, nurse, ot Marranboy. On Sunday,evening 16ta J any. Sister' Yansen and myself ac-companied by Mounted Constable Clapp left t'he Penola Home on horse back for a ride. We went along the North End road, for some distance and from there onto the Uralba

(Continued on next Jfage)

Continued fiom Page 1.

road We turned for home but found we were not nearing Marranboy. At about 11 p ,m we came to the top of a gorge. We started to follow a road leading down into the gorge which led us near to a camp which we thought to be the near the North End' of Marranboy We continued for some time. Realising we were bushfed we camped. At daybreak having decided to travel in an easterly direction we remounted. This led us to a camp we had passed previously which proved to be Mr Jamieson's We had some conversation with Mr Jamieson and a drink of water, and, travelled with a blackboy loaned td ¡us at Mr Clapp's request a distance of one mile. This brought us to a well-defined cart road with recent motor tracks on it and it was fhti "road. After the boy left us the three of us travel|led| on for some time till Sister Yansen's horse showed signs» of fatigue and she requested Mr Clapp to go ahead and get fresh horses but he refused. We continued on the road together till Sister Yansen and I both repeated the request and| after a time he consented unwillingly, im-pressing on us not to leave the main road and to follow his track. Sister Yansen and myself then travelled some distance and decidedi to rest. We dismounted, tied our horses to a tree and rested for about a quarter of an hour and then oontinuedl oh the road for some distance and came across Mr Clapp's horse rnsaddled and secured to a tree at the .roadside. We resaddled the horse and led it with us and traveliled in' this way .lUitiS sometime in the after-noon. The horses were completely fatigued. We dismounted and tied the horses to the roadside. There was what appeared to be a gully jurt there so we both looked around for water, but found none and returned to the holmes and, rested. We decided to retrace our steps a distance of about, 50 yards to where there was a well defined cattle pad leading across the roadi with a guUy on either side. We were going one in either direction for about 10 rr-Jnutcs to sec if water was available. If not we should, return and continue on the Marranboy road', I was in the act of tying a note to the saddle of the third horse when Constable Hall and party arrived:. We had a drink of water and continued -m the road for a few minutes when wd were met iby a motor loriy driven by Mr Allmich and in which were Mr Bums and Constable Clapp. We also boarded) the lorry and we were taken to a permanent water ho'e a short distance away. Here we ah had refreshments and after a tîir « proceeded to Marranboy in the lort}/ arriving about 6 pm. The motoi lorry arrived to pick ,u,s up about between 3 and 4 pm. Our last food was at about 6 o'clock on the Sunday evening. We had, a drink of water at Jamieson's and nothing eise until Constable Hall and his party arrived We would have been some hours longer on the road had the lorry not

arrived.

This ended, the case for the prose-

cution .

No evidence was given in defence' and the defendant was committed for

trial.

Tf a "Vit|| ja plticprf over a basin of frp.hly-raa.de starch, no skin will form on top.

S'iiM.s oí munni f.im lie jvmn'ol bv rubbin i 'hem willi rough salt moMeuud with

vinegar.

If you add milk to nwlicd pn'ntoiM he aun the milk used K hof. Cold or )iik«'\vann mi'k will inako th? potatoes h..avy and pasty

JOB PRINTING of all kinds exe-cuted tastefully and ^..cisfac^orii/ at tfce JS.T. Tim»8 Office,