TONGAN HOUDINI MAKES SIXTH ESCAPE FROM GAOL

Evening Star, Issue 26139, 28 June 1947, Page 12

TONGAN HOUDINI MAKES SIXTH ESCAPE FROM GAOL

Defying guards and handcuffs to earn a reputation among the Pacific Islands as a modern' Houdtni, a 26-year-old Tongan prisoner named Mahe lias escaped from gaol in Nukualofa ior the sixth time. Twice previously lie made use of his liberty to sail small boats to Fiji, 300 miles away, and boatowners at Nukualofa have been warned to take special precautions to prevent the theft of their craft. Mahe is well known to the Tongan police, who.have spent a good deal of their time recapturing him since lie first became a problem at the age of 14. . Successive gaol-breaking efforts have increased his. prison sentence arid he faced a ’ten-year term when, during the recent Royal wedding celebrations, lie prised up the floor hoards of a cell in the main police station and escaped wearing his handcuffs. He has since eluded search parties, which have been combing villages, plantations, and bush.

Mahe's most spectacular escape was made with five other prisoners. A boat which they stole from Nukualofa was wrecked on the reef of an outlying island of the Tongan group and, after one of the party had been killed by falling down a cliff, they made model canoes, containing messages asking for aid, which they launched in the hope of their reaching the authorities. When these efforts failed, Mahe felled a tree, hollowed it into a crude canoe, and sailed apparently for Nukualofa with the intention of giving himself up. Instead he landed in the Lau Islands of the Fiji group and was returned later in custody to Tonga. On another occasion he made a similar voyage in a 14ft yacht.