FOUL PLAY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 10

FOUL PLAY?

MISSING HINDU.

POLICE DISCOVERIES.

DID NOT LEAVE DISTRICT.

PAINSTAKING INQUIRIES

As the result of the discovery of certain evidence obtained by Detectives A. J. White and F. Hayes, there is now good reason to believe that Deln De<?ai, aged 12, the Hindu storekeeper missing

from Taharoa since May 7, has been the victim (if foul play.

The poliee are certain that the Hindu has not left the district. The first news of Delu Desai's disappearance was received by telephone on May 9 by Constable G. F. MacKenzie, of Kawhia. The constable immediately made inquiries in the district, and the description of the missing man wa« circulated throughout Xew Zealand. As no trace could be found Inspector C. W. Lopdell. in charge of the Hamilton police district, sent Detectives White and_Hayes to continue investigations in the Taharoa district. The organisation of the police investigations was excellent, and with the work painstakingly carried out, evidence was gradually collected indicating that the Hindu had not left the district by either of the only two routes out. Some idea of the magnitude of the task and the thorough method* adopted by the detectives is gained when it is realised that over 100 persons were interviewed regarding the movements of the Hindu over the week-end when he was last seen. The Search Narrows. Gradually the search was narrowed down to a (specific neighbourhood, and following further important discoveries, Inspector Lopdell proceeded to Taharoa. The inspector took with him Constables J. Richardson and G. Tait, of Hamilton, and left them at Taharoa to a-ssist in the herculean task of dragging the large lake. Now that five additional constables and a sergeant have arrived at Taharoa a proper police camp has been erected. With up-to-date equipment, including a 20ft boat powered with an outboard motor, the police to-day started to drag the lake. Thorough searches are also being made of the sandhills, parties of Maoris assisting the police in this work. Rugged Country. The country in which the search party is working is extremely rugged and broken, and the difficulties confronting the searchers are numerous. In the early days the site on which the settlement now. stands .must have been part of an estuary, but the mouth has gradually been blocked up until the ebb and .flow of the tide was shut out from I the estuary and a lake formed. ! This lake is over two miles long and ■is shaped like an anchor. There are grazing lands on some shores, but on others steep banks run straight into the I water. On the side next to the sea there are rows of huge sand dunes which [extend up to the settlement. These sand ,dunes shift with the wind, and searching ■in this locality is extremely difficult. The two flanges of the lake that form 'the head of the anchor are lowering and covered with raupo and thick weed. A further example of the wildness of the country is given by the fact that the boats crossing the lake cannot be rowed up some stretches owing to the raupo. and have to be .poled along serpentine passages left in the high standing reeds.