FIVE DAYS’ LIBERTY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 28 June 1926, Page 7

FIVE DAYS’ LIBERTY

PRISON ESCAPEE CAUGHT. WOODS, THE TAIHAPE ABDUCTOR ARREST ON SATURDAY. Five- Jays of liberty for Clarence Arnos. Woods, an es'eapoc irom the Waimarino Prison Camp, ended' on Saturday, when he was captured, at Otaire by Constable H. J. Thompson, of Hunterville. Woods, the central figure in the recent sensational Taihape abduction ease, uvas undergoing sentence of two years’ reformative detention. On Monday he escaped from the prison camp, and the police throughout the district were at once advised to be on the watch. All roads, and the Main Trunk railway, were closely watched, but the escapee eluded capture until Saturday (says the Wanganui Chronicle). Information received by the police, 'however, disclosed that -lie- was working his way south. . , Various outlying stations advised that a stranger seeking work had been seen, and the relentless pursuit Was consummated on Saturday evening, at 7.15, when Constable Thompson, landed his quarry in the in the vicinity of Otaire. Lt was a- well-won capture, as Constable Thompson had spent- a. hard day in chase of his man. _ Wood's- had discarded 1 his prison garments, and was roughly clad in coat and trousers, secured, he said, from a swagger. “You would not have got me, if J had known you were so close,” he told Constable • Thompson, when he was taken. He appeared to think he was unlucky in, being caught, and had evidently believed that he had slipped safely through the police cordon. Keeping to back-country trails and hiding in the bush., Wood's had covered 80 miles of very' stiff country. Apparently lie headed towards Otaire from Waiouru, via. the hilly Country roun d Mu,taro a . He had begged- food from sheep stations, and said he was looking for work. Sleeping out, on verv cold nigh.tsi seemed to have affected him very little, though he was weary when caught. Such privations, apparently, are all in the day’s work to the enterprising 'Woods, who- left Waniata-, Taihape, on ‘April 23, taking with him a, girl just under 12. Riding: on the one horse, the pair headed for Napier, over a. precipitous mountain road, and had 'covered 55 miles when caught. Woods was taken to Taihape immediately after Ids capture on Saturday night, and was handed over to the prison authorities.