A DESPERATE CRIMINAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 200, 18 May 1908, Page 9

A DESPERATE CRIMINAL.

; STILL AT LARGE. ' ; HE SHOT AT A CONSTABLE TWO YEARS AGO. ■(BY TELEGEAI'ir.—SPECIAL COERESrONbEKT.i Auckland, Jtav 10. The "Herald" makes much capital out of tho escape from custody of the- riiaii Smith (who is still at large); in. connection with tho almost simultaneous statement :of the Minister, for Justice that,.prisoners,'4ent to Waiotapu arc "carefully selected.".. The journal in its cdlumus 'remarks —. ."The. 'carefully selected ' prisoners,' referred to by. the Minister'..for. Justice 'ia: our issue of to-day as being sent to the, Waiotapu tree-planting . camp 1 contrive .to escapo from that institution with monotonous, regularity. Three escaped recently, oiio of whom is still nt large; and last evening another desperate criminal, undergoing a sentence of twelve years for attempted. murder' and burglary, got away .while .being i-e----tuvued from . Waiotapu to Auckland in charge of a warder. He probably found tho escaping opideruic at Waiotapu a catching complaint, and while being; conveyed ' to Mount Eden Gaol, apparently for'' 'safety's sake,' lie made a. sensational leap from the train, and got away. The sending :of such' a dangerous criminal to the Waiotapu camp seoms rather roinarkablo ..in 'view of the Hon. J. M'Gowan's statement that the prisoners drafted there from' other gaols are 'carefully selected.' : In view of recent oveuts, '. it ' looks as if they wero a littlo... too carefully \ selected, and oven the statement 'that tho. percentage of escapes has been ' remarkably' small' will fail to exhilarate the people in thp district when they hear that: ;i wouldbo murderer has boon added to- tho, list. Anyway, it is news to hear that a 'gaol is supposed to have a percentage of' escapes, small or otherwise."

In connection with the same subject,; it appears that the escaped man Smith,' who is also know under tjio alias ' of Archer, is; a most dangerous criminal, who was captured red-handed two years -ago by Constable Coppell in Nowton while attempting to break into a store'in Karangahape Road, Auckland. When tho constable went to arrest him, Smith fired point blank at him" with a revolver, and bolted. Tho constable pursued, and Smith turned round and-fired at him again. Undeterred by the murderous ruffian, tho plucky,, officer' rushed him and overpowered him. For this- attempt 011 tho constable's lifo Smith was sentenced tii ,tpn years', imprisonment, and got another sentenco of two years for tho attempted burglary. The police are out scouring the country in search of tho missing, prisonor, but so far ho has not been found. • LARC. E PARTIES SEARCHING!' (BY TEIXOEArir—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) AvscUlaml, Slay 17. Up to tho time of tho closing of the Telegraph Office, the prisoner, William Smith, alias Archer, who made his escape 011 Friday by jumping from an express train while on his way from Waiotapu to Auckland, had not been, recaptured. Largo parties arc scouring the country.