AFTER A WEEK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 141, 16 June 1936, Page 8

AFTER A WEEK.

MURDER IN NORTH. NO ARREST MADE YET. DIFFICULTIES FOR POLICE. (By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) WHANGAREI, tliis day. A week lias now elapsed since Mr. Ernest Severin Nelson was murdered on his property at Waihou Valley, and despite exhaustive inquiries by a strong body of police the arrest of the person who shot him in the back at close range appears to be little nearer than it.was immediately following the crime. E\'en the people of the valley, among whom the murdered man lived so quietly for nearly 24 years, are at a loss to suggest any reason why, as a close j neighbour put it to-day, "such a harmless ancf helpful man should have been done to death." One of the few definite facts which has emerged from the investigations is the time when the fatal shot was heard by Ken Howe, the son of sharemilkers on the property. That was at 7.2.3 p.m., but the co-ordination of times of events just before and after the crime is a very difficult matter. Maoris, as a rule, do not understand the time factor as do Europeans, and to them a margin of half an hour either way means little. The small population of the valley, of course, helped the murderer. It is recalled that the Riccarton Hotel murder still remains a mystery, although there were a number of other persons actually present on the premises when the shooting occurred. In the Waihou Valley, and especially in the vicinity of Mr. Nelson's property, the holdings are large, and a mile back from the. main road on either side there is much wild, unbroken country in which a man might walk for miles without meeting anyone.

A suggestion that the murderer may hare taken to the Puketi Forest or the adjoining Omahuta Forest is discounted, and these localities have so far not been given any attention by the police. However, it is possible that the shotgun cr the cartridge may have been secreted there, or possibly in the deep and .muddy Rangiahua River, which winds a mile or .so from Mr. Nelson's farm. Tracks Obliterated. When he fired the fatal shot the in ii rderer may have crouched behind the briar .bush in the drive, but all tracks in the vicinity were obliterated by cattle which were grazing there on the night of the tragedy. :

Endeavours are being made to check up on sources from which Mr. Nelson may have received mail on the night of the murder. This is being done with a view to ascertaining whether any of the correspondence which he picked up from the letter-box was not among that held in his hand when his dead body was found later in the evening.

The police are continuing the collection of shotguns from districts within a radius of lr> miles, but this task, in a district where pheasants and rabbits are fairly plentiful, and where almost every household possesses, a firearm, is one of some magnitude. Investigations now have extended to as far as Taheke, while the Maori settlement at Rangialum continues to ho a centre of police activity. The natives who for years have led a quiet and undisturbed' life, are feeling a little uneasiness in beins; brought info the realities of a man hunt, and some have even, vacated - their premises to take up temporary residence in more thickly populated areas. Many of the natives iviio have been called upon to give statements have never faced a typewriter before, and some of them, it has been shown, have been inclined to let their sense of the dramatic paint pictures of the imagination. There have been instances of fresh matter being introduced in a second interrogation, and of contradictions and interpolations, and the police have been led to waste valuable time in pursuing scents which have proved to be false. Yesterday the stock was mustered on Mr. Nelson's property, for the purposes of valuation.