Our Middlemarch correspondent writes: "There is not yet any word of the man Cummock, who so mysteriously disappeared from the Barewood reefs a week ago. A diligent search has been carried out by his fellow miners and our energetic constable, Mr O'Brien, but with no effect. Some surprise has been expressed at none of the man's family or friends turning up to assist." -Otago Daily Times, 23/3/1892.
"One of the family of the missing man" writes to us with regard to the man John Cummock, who is missing from Barewood Reef, "I and other members of his family were told by his employer that the latter saw him about 9 a.m. on Sunday, the 13th inst. A few days before that date Cummock had said that when ho got time he would go and get a fire-bar at an old Government camp some two miles distant, and it is supposed that ho was going to that place when some accident must have befallen him. In your report of the 18th inst. you say that he took a small bundle of clothes with him, but on looking over his clothes we ascertained that the clothes he had on are the only ones that are missing." -Evening Star, 31/3/1892.
FOUND DEAD.
(By telegraph. — press association.)
Dunedin, this day. Whilst climbing about on the rocky bank of the Deep Stream two young ladies, members of one of the numerous parties who went out on excursion, discovered the remains of a man lying face downwards on the edge, about eight feet above the river. He had evidently met his death by falling down the cliff, as the rock above had been stripped of grass. The body had evidently been in the place for some months, as hawks and rats had completely denuded the head, back, legs and arms of flesh. The body is supposed to be that of Cummock, an engineer, who left a quartz reef in the locality some months ago, and has not since been heard of. -Auckland Star, 29/10/1892.
At a subsequent inquest, although Cummock's family were not able to identify the remains as his, the jury returned a unanimous verdict that is was.
THE FATALITY ON THE OTAGO CENTRAL.
TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — There are three reasons why we (my uncle and myself) failed to identify the body found at Deep Stream. In the first place John Cummock lost the first joint of the second finger of the right hand when he was eight years of age; secondly, he has been bald-headed these last 15 years; thirdly, the boots that Cummock wore when he went amissing were watertights. Now the man that was found at Deep Stream had all the fingers on the right hand. He also had brown hair on the crown of his head to the length of over two inches, and in the third place this man had Balmoral boots on.
Now how a coroner's jury came to give such a verdict after knowing these facts we cannot understand.
— We are, &c., George Cummock. James Cummock.
Dunedin, October 31. -Otago Daily Times, 3/11/1892.
THE OTAGO CENTRAL FATALITY.
TO THE EDITOR.
Sir, —The Messrs Cummock have three reasons why they failed to identify the body found on Excursion Day as that of their father; they might have added a fourth and chief reason.
1. The foreman of the jury, Mr Neill, in viewing the body, drew attention to the fact that the top joint of the middle finger of the right hand was missing, and this largely determined the jury in their finding.
2. The head of the deceased was what is understood as bald, a small tuft of hair only remaining far back on the very crown.
3. The evidence showed that the deceased (J. Cummock) had two pairs of boots, those found on the body being water-tight Balmorals.
So far I have answered the serious charges brought against the jury (disinterested parties) by those interested (?). Now for the evidence or the chief witness. B. McIvor, an intimate friend of the missing J. Cummock, identified the body by the shirt, trousers, jacket, and pipe. Surely this was sufficient. Even G. Cummock, when cross-examined by Constable O'Brien, admitted that the jacket found on the body was of the same material as that worn by his father when he last saw him, six weeks before he went amissing. The unanimity of the jury was further strengthened by the coroner, Mr G. W. Pogson, complimenting them on their decision. I think any unbiased jury could come to no other decision than that arrived at; so that if any blunder has been perpetrated it cannot be sheeted home to the jury, of whom I am
One. -Otago Daily Times, 7/11/1892.
A JURYMAN ON THE OTAGO CENTRAL MYSTERY.
TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Mr George Cummock seeks to throw blame on the police for not seeking for the rope which his father took away with him from the tent when he went missing. Had he displayed as much vigilance as the public and the police the body might have been found before it was. Now for G. Cs. inaccuracies once more. He says that the foreman (Mr Neill) could not stand the smell. Now, it is a fact that Mr Neill has not got the sense of smell at all, having lost it during a fever when a boy, and I can testify that Mlr Neill never left the body all the time it was being examined, and touched it more than any one present. I appeal to the coroner and my fellow jurymen to bear me out in this statement.
Again, "G. C." infers that Mr Neill did not draw attention to the missing joint of the finger. I say most emphatically he did — to the coroner, the Cummocks, and to the jury. I am not aware that his uncle spread the hand over his, and I am morally certain that Mr Pogson never said the hand was all there.
Constable O'Brien is to be commended rather than censured for the vigilance he displayed in searching for the body, for the despatch with which he had it prepared for inquest, and for his ability in conducting the whole case.
I think from the above the public will feel satisfied where the error lies, and my opponents will wish they had not rushed into print.
— I am, &c, One of the Jury. -Otago Daily Times, 11/11/1892.
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