On some previous occasion, possibly a couple of years ago, made mention of one C. J. De Gaus, who had flown from Perth. to Melbourne and expressed his.
satisfaction that he had not been formally welcomed as a pioneer of il aviation. Just at this moment! the police are looking for this De Gaus, because there is not only writ against him, but also several running into about £15,000 against his wife, who it seems stared a new] xpeeulative business, of which she tne that Tomy Wale, ener' of te] smite, ber hushnnd "manager, appointed her Federation, and other Be done imalvent over a be deported. Twenty- big West Aux deal, uric was the son of a Methodist five thousand persons took part in the othering, and a half-hearted minister, who dropped his calling to become a real estate agent at the Attempt to capture the live earvied cresting Mildura fruit settle-was easily defeated by the soldiers, Ax to No. 2 it would he Impossible urea. The son, it is said, for the "Commonwealth Shipping xot his training in his father's office, Board to take orders from the which, in the light of subsequent teamen's federation as to the rates events, seems rather unkind to say of wavees which it is to pay to euch about the parent. The father sold out and went to London, and then ferews ax may serve on the ships chartered by it, and the men will the son was able to show what was have to finally ive way, thei!
Lite became publicity agent crews 10 to gaol.
The General Result Shipowners have rather taken the crews of the ships by surprise. The moment difficulty arises in_ getting a ship away the owners give 24 bourse, notice to the crew and tie her up indefinitely. As a. result there are already thousands of men out of work, and these thousands fare getting very restive. They do not want to be idle; their families must live: and the Federation has no funds from which to pay strike money to married men. 'The restiveness may be judged from the fact that the other day in Melbourne the men insisted upon accepting the owners' offer about a picking up for the local Dried Fruits Associ and undoubtedly did for it excellent work, though there were suggestions that he was rather on the expensive side, Later on. he started or bought out newspapers founded the De Gaus Publishin: Company, gave a prize for a book, which was reviewed by the "Times," got a film version put up on the screen, flew about in an aeroplane, fatter he bad heavily insured his life, and, as new transpires, had assigned his policy, and bought the Kendenup estate in West Australia which was to outrival Mildura and Renmark as irrigation settlements. Kendenup was in due course announced to be undercapitalized, and De Gaus failing to raise fresh money locally went off to America where he secured the necessary cash, but unfortunately the "bankers" went insolvent before they' could pay anything. On account of this failure De Gaus addressed 400 letters to 400 friends, asking them to lend him £100 apiece, and quite a number sent along their cheques. Then Kendenup passed into the hands of a govt. trust, De Gaus became insolvent, and his second wife (his first having divorced him) started the Melbourne Subdivisions Ld., with palatial offices and a large staff of clerks, whose faces stared at one from the advertising columns of the newspapers. De Gaus was a publicity agent to start with and one up to the very moment of his disappearance. The manner fof the last was original enough. He wrote between 60 and 70 letters to various people saying that he had became mentally deficient, in that was no longer able to say to his friends who trusted him the truth; another 13 page letter to the directors of his business, allegedly explaining how everything stood, and then a brief four lines on a serap of paper which he pinned to suit of clothes and left in an abandoned motor car. The scrap. requested the finder to communicate with De Garis's wife, and tell her to Took in a certain drawer in hix bedroom. There he had left yet another sereed. All the letters promised his suicide by drowning in the nearby Southern Ocean. It is not unjust to say that no single individual honestly believed that he had suicided. The police at once wired to the other States to look out for him, the landlord put the bailiff in for arrears of office rent, a friend who had lent him £200 before the Christams Holidays return for a cheque for £600 payable after the holidays, but dishonoured, issued a writ for his arrest, and several other writs were issued against his wife, as owner of the company known as Bfelbourne Subdivisions, Ld. Then there turned up in Sydney "an uncon-vineing American journalist, who went to live at one of these nonresidential "hotels" near the water side. Plain clothes police had a Took at him, but he was then only issing. When the first warrant was out the police found he had got away, but had left behind him a bunch of keys with his name on the tab, and the torn remnants of a telegraph form which looked as if he has started to write a wire to hhis wife, and then thought better is now supposed to be steamer on the way to New if he is the man he IN have an opportunity of testing'
expressed opinions ax to whether it is better to die from drowning Jor poison. But the pol him with more dleverne believe that he is on the steamer, out that someone is carrying his! luggage for a consideration, and that he has doubled back on his tracks. De Gaus in his farewell letters announces himself as a rear benefactor of his country, and his wife-repeats that he always thought of the Australian public and never of himself. It is impossible Jat present to hazard the amount of the savings of the people which has been entrusted to the care of this strange, and to many fascinating, personality.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.