KEEPER ASSAILED

Evening Star, Issue 24116, 10 February 1942, Page 4

KEEPER ASSAILED

LIGHTHOUSE SET ON FIRE PUYSEGUR SENSATION SUSPECT ARRESTED (P.A.) INVERCARGILL, Feb. 9. The Ruysegur Point lighthouse on the south-west coast of the South Island, 80 miles from Bluff, was burned to the ground on Sunday afternoon after the keeper on duty had been attacked and* knocked unconscious. The assailant, taking with him a rifle and ammunition belonging to the lighthouse, escaped to an island threequarters of a mile away, where he is now marooned.

A report was received by the police in Invercargill that an assailant had attacked the man on duty in the lighthouse, knocked him out, smashed the radio, set fire to the lighthouse, and then made oft with a .303 rifle and five cartridges which had been kept handy for shooting deer for fresh meat. He took his boat and rowed across to the island.

When the lighthouse-keeper recovered from the attack he summoned a companion and they rowed after the intruder and took his boataway, leaving him marooned on the island. The two men returned to the mainland, made temporary repairs to the radio, and communicated with the authorities. Sergeant J. Coutts, of Bluff, and Detective T. Smith and five constables left Bluff at 11 o’clock last night on the trawler Toiler and arrived at Puysegur Point at 9 o’clock this morning. Since then no further report has been received from them.

The man who is alleged to have committed the crimes has been prospecting on the island to which he escaped for about six or seven months, and has been in the habit of making trips regularly to the lighthouse to collect stores left there by the lighthouse ship. The head lighthouse-keeper, Mr G. Brown, has been on leave since Friday. The three men stationed at the lighthouse are Messrs T. G. Smith, E. B. N. Miller (wireless operator), and G. Smith,

The lighthouse was a wooden tower 50tt high. Because of the black-out on the coast the lamp has not been burning for the past year. It was intended to build a new lighthouse at Puysegur, and materials for the purpose and electric lighting equipment had been assembled at Bluff and Puysegur Point. Puysegur Point is at the entrance to Preservation Inlet, and is usually the first land sighted by passengers from Melbourne to Bluff. There is a post and radio telegraph station at the point, and mails arrive every fortnight by boat from Riverton.

GREAT RELIEF FELT MAN HAD RIFLE INVERCARGILL, Feb. 10. The man alleged to set fire to the Puysegur Point lighthouse on Sunday and to have assaulted one of the light-house-keepers has been arrested by the police and is being brought back to Invercargill. The police party are all safe and well. Relief was felt in police circles when a telegram was received from Puysegur Point stating that the party was safe and well, for it was known that the wanted man had a .303 rifle and ammunition, which ho had taken from the lighthouse. The police must have acted with considerable promptitude, for Coal Island, where the man was marooned, rises to a height of 850 ft, and is covered with dense bush. The police left Puysegur at midday on the return journey, and the trawler Toiler is expected to arrive here at a late hour to-night.