MURDER CHARGE

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20025, 5 September 1930, Page 10

MURDER CHARGE

DEATH OF ROBERT COCKBURN. SWAGGERS CAPTURED. NO RESISTANCE OFFERED. Alfred James Sandiford Colenso, aged about thirty, will be charged with the murder of Robert Allen Cockburn, aged twenty-three, this morning. lie and liis companion, Arthur Edward Farquharson, an old man, who are the two swaggers wanted in connexion with the death, from a bullet wound, of Cockburn, on the Lake Coleridge road early on Wednesday afternoon, were arrested on the road near Cass shortly after four o'clock yesterday afternoon by Detective-Sergeant J. B. Young and a party of detectives.

The two men offered 110 resistance. Colenso still carried a repeating rifle of small bore, in his swag. They were taken in charge, a,nd brought to Christchurch by car, where they arrived at about 8.30 p.m. Both men made a statement, xt is understood. The police did not state what the charge against ITarquharson would be, or whether there would be one.

Colenso is a dark man of medium stature, well built and clean-shaven. Farquharson is slimly built, between iii'ty and sixty years old, and has a grisled moustache. Colenso used to work in the Castle Hill district six or seven years ago. The capture was the result of a wellorganised search by tho police, who had bad all the roads in the neighbourhood of tho tragedy closely watched since dawn yesterday morning. An X-ray examination of Cockburn's body, made last night, disclosed that a bullet had entered tho left breast, and had penetrated between two ribs and through one lung, to tho spine. Found Lunch Gone. On Wednesday morning Cockburn was driving a tractor in a paddock on tho Lake Coleridge homestead block fronting the road. Living in a cainp, he took his lunch, billy, and tea with him to work, but, apparently, when he came to get them at lunch time they were gone. It is believed that he started after two swaggers whom he saw making off up the road, and when Mr Colin Stewart, of Coalgate, came along in his motor-lorry he gave Cockburn a lift. They came upon the two seated in a cutting. Stewart drove past, stopped, and let Cockburn out to go back to _ the swaggers. He then went on his journey, and that was the last time ho saw Cockburn alive. Body Discovered. At 2.7 p.m., Mr F. Langbein, District Public Works Engineer, with a party from the Canterbury College Board of Governors, was returning from an inspection of a college reserve at Coleridge, when he camo across Cockburn's body lying across one of the wheel-tracks of the narrow road near the cutting. In his right hand was his pipe, freshly filled, and in his left an open match-box. Blood flowed from a wound in the left side of the chest. He wore ordinary working trousers, a cardigan, and a coat. Nearby were charred sticks, indicating that tho billy had been boiled. Mr Langbein at once went to Mr Murchison's house and rang up the power-house at Lake Coleridge. Mr S. A. Prescott, engineer, and an employee took two nurses from the local hospital to tlic scene, but they found that the unfortunate man was alroady dead. He was removed to tho Bluff Hotel at Coalgate.

Inquest Adjourned. An inquest was opened before Mr H. P. Lawry, Coroner, at the Coalgate police station yesterday afternoon. The only witness was Arthur James .ng, a shepherd, living at Glenroy, who identified the body. Cockbum was, he said, a single man, a labourer by occupation, employed by Mr lan Murchison, of LaKe Coleridge Station. He had not seen him for over a year. The inquest was adjourned and will probably be resumed at Coalgate.' Tho body was brought to tho Christchurch Hospital for a post mortem examination. The funeral will take place at Glentunnel this afternoon. Search by Police. A large squad of detectives and police left for the Lake Coleridge district on Wednesday night, and they wore followed by reinforcements yesterday morning. AH tho main routes leading to and from the district were watched, but rugged country, rain, and snow early yesterday morning hampered the search. It was confidently anticipated by Constable M. H. Gibson, of Coalgate, who was one of the first on the scene on Wednesday, that the two swaggers would make for t! Midland line and the West Coast road. l.»e party divided and all the roads were carefully watched This contention proved correct, for yesterday morning two swargers, who were beyond doubt the wanted men, were given breakfast by a camping partv at Mount Eny«. They had proceeded west along the road during the day to just this side of Cass, when Detective-Sergeant Young made the arrest. This is well over twentv miles from where the tragedy took place. Some of the other detachments or police who had not heard of the capture —miles separated some of them—had not returned to the City at 11 o'clock last night. Sleet and snow fell in the vicinity of the tragedy early yesterday morning, but the rest of the' day was fine, but cold.

breakfast at mount ENYS. SWAGGERS SEEN YESTERDAY MORNING. Two swaggers, one of whom was carrying a gun, were given breakfast by a camping party at Mount Enys, about 20 miles from Springfield on the niain road to Cass, yesterday morning.

"One of them was a dark chap, ot medium height, with a prominent nose," said one of the party to a reporter of The Press last evening. "He was carrying a gun—either a rifle or a single-barrelled nhot gun. The other one was an elderly man, about five feet ten or sis feet tall. "They came up to the hut and demanded food and tobacco. 'Don't tell the police we have been here,' were almost the first words spoken by the younger man. They came along at about half-past eight. We gave them food and tobacco, and they went off towards Cass about half an hour later. "We were camped in a hut about two miles from Castle Hill Station, on Mr Blakeley's property," he continued. "It is about two hundred