ALLEGED THEFT OF MOTORCAR

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21124, 27 March 1934, Page 10

ALLEGED THEFT OF MOTORCAR

KXCITINt; I'l KSI II OF srsi'Kcrs \K\V PI.YMOFTH. March fH. Constable !•:. YV. Powell, at Mnkau. tu-iiir.ht. v. as attacked and si ruck wit 1 , a bottle when aitompiim; to detain two y mm'.; men who were m possesion of a car which had allegedly been taken without authority limi! New Plymouth earlier in tile evcniii;*,. An excitni", man hunt under cover of darkness hallowed later, when Si Mnkau resident:, with Com-tabL Poweil. searched the riverside : crub for the men. who had made a temporary fieiawav. U'h' u the men won cornered hv Constable Powell and Messrs Frederick Northern and N Taylor, another strenuous melee occurred before they could be taken into custody.

The car. a live-soator, inviicd bv Mi' Peter Oscar Pope, of New !'!;. mnulh. was taken between (>" 15 anii li.Fi p.mi. Constable Powell had stationed himself at tl>e rabbit Kate at the Mokau river bridge to intei'cept (lie ear. as nil drivers of vehicles have to slop at this point to open tin; f;atc. The car arrived at 9 p.m., and Constable Powell immediately ohallemtecl the two men in :1. The constable asked the men to accompany him, and the driver jammer! the car jnto reverse Rear, and attempted to hack awav from the e,ate. Constable Powell lean; to the running board, and seized t!v .steering wheel. Theri the second occupant crashed a bottle on the constable's jaw. lie was dazed, and the men decamped from the ear. and ;.;nt away under a brid.ue. A purtv "oi men was organised, and in the'darkness tiie scrub round the river waseoured. Constable Powell and Messrs Taylor and Northern located the pair; but the men ,",ave the three searchers a struestle before thev woulri submit.

The men would no! en. e then names.