Notable Prospector

Accidentally Shot in Papuan Wilds

Dick Roche’S Partner

From Our Own Correspondent

Port Moresby, Nov. 17.

A WELL-KNOWN prospector, Mr.

Tom Jackson, was killed acci dentally on September 15 in his tent, on the upper reaches of the Tiveri River, in the Kuku-Kuku coun try of Papua.

It appeared that the natives had been particularly hostile, and it had been found necessary to place a “boy” on guard at night, and to relieve the native from duty, Mr. Jackson and his mate, Mr. “Scotty” Sutherland, set an alarm-clock at midnight.

Mr. Jackson, it seems, waking with the alarm, found the guard asleep, and, in his annoyance, threw the boy’s rifle, butt-end first, onto his bunk. It jarred and, as it fell, the cartridge ex ploded, shooting Mr. Jackson. He dropped and died as his mate jumped to his help.

Mr. Sutherland carried his dead companion on a three-days’ journey to the old Nepa Station, and from there sent messages to other prospectors, Mr. Jackson first came to Papua 20 years ago. Later on he left for Dutch New Guinea, where he and his partner, Dick Roche, made expeditions into the interior after Paradise Plumes and be came the most successful hunters of their day.

They then established a cocoanut plantation, on the proceeds of their sales, but this life proved too tame for Mr. Jackson, and he returned to Papua in 1926.

Since then, Mr. Jackson has tried his luck on Edie Creek, New Guinea, and the upper reaches of the Tauri and Tiveri, in prospecting for gold, and his mates say he was never happy un less clambering over strange mountain ranges, in search of the unknown.

He was well-liked by his friends and was known as “a good man and a straight mate.”

In the last issue of The Pacific Islands Monthly, it was reported that Mr. Dick Roche, who, for some years, was Mr. Jackson’s partner, was missing somewhere in the south of Dutch New Guinea, and there was no hope of his safe return. Thus fate has shown a cruel hand with these two hardened pioneers, who faced many dangers together in the wild, unexplored regions of New Guinea. The two men apparently met their deaths within a few days of each other.