DROPPED IN HIS TRACKS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 169, 17 July 1919, Page 5

DROPPED IN HIS TRACKS.

• AFTER AN ARREST. YOUNG POLICE CONSTABLE DEAD. Beginning with a' wordy altercation between two men outside the Thames Hotel corner to-day, a series of events moved quickly till*they possibly caused the sudden collapse and death of a constable. The two men were quarrelling, and Constable VV. Christie was just relieving Constable H. Spence on point duty at the busy corner. . He arrested one of them, and gave him over in charge of Spence to take to the station. Constable Forsyth came along then, and seized the other disturber. The two were disposed to be violent, but they were jammed into a taxi and the two constables took themup to the station. Here the really serious part of the business was enacted, for the two prisoners struggled violently as they were hauled from the ear into the station. Constable Forsyth came first, and fought with'his man till he shot him inside the watch-house. Just on his heels came Spence with the other, a huge fellow, fighting hard. Forsyth came out and lent a hand, and the second disturber was put in with the first. Then, before anybody could do anything, Constable, Spence turned in his tracks, threw up his! hands, and collapsed. When he was lifted he was dead. The dead constable has been a permanent member of the force in Auckland for just over two months, but before this he had six and a-half years' service in the Royal New Zeajand Artillery, and had not long been discharged from the N.Z.E.F. after thirty months on active j ■service. With his home in Whangarei, j Constable Spence was only 25 yeanr of ,'age, and was a very popular young mem-i her of the local force. The exact cause of his death has njt yet been ascertained, but there will bej an inquest to-morrow.