WAIHOU MURDER

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXV, Issue 12919, 22 July 1936, Page 4

WAIHOU MURDER

HUNT FOR CRIMINAL CONTI.SUES. 15 POLICE OFFICERS •-ENGAGED; Commissioner D. J. Cummings, chief of the New Zealand police, arrived at ihe seme of the Nelson murder from Wellingon on Thursday night. It is not known whether his presence indicates the possibility of an early arrest . Little or no information can he. gleaned as to exactly bow far the inquiries have progressed. No official statement was forthcoming from the police other than. “There are no further developments.” This is piobably due to the fact that, there appears to have been little evidence of value discovered so far. The difficulties of the police can be easily imagined when, on the morning after the murder, they were eonirouted with the body of a man who seemingly did not have an eneiriv in the world. Ris killer had not’left’the slightest clue behind him. A settler m the Waihou Valley, who has handled shotguns -all his life, reasons that .either the person who fired the shot was experienced in the handling of a shotgun or be cr she did not know the first tiling about ii. His reasons for this statement were that if an experienced man fired a gun lie automatically and' subconsciously , extracted the, discharged shell. A*-person who - was not familiar with a gun would fire and retreat from file scent}--of his crime without thinking or knowing how to extract the shell. There arc still LI police officers engaged oir the crime mystery. The upper leaches of the Wuiliou River hare been dragged audV- apparently no clue has come to ligiu;. For about a mile and a half on the main road on each side of the Nelson property n police party, lias cleared fern and other growth, and it seen:; that no use ful eridcnce has been discovered. Numbers of shotguns havq heen seiz cd from all quarters' of the district, by the police. These have been examin pd by Mr. G. Kelly,, firearms expert, $ Wellington. The vesivlts<ofi.« his tests, iirq,not known. = ; i Every Maori settlement within a (■(Rhus of ten miles, piifticularly Taheke, Utakura’ and Jlorokc,' 'have h.eei. the subject, of innumerable visits by. ppiice officers for the plirpose of interviewing natives.