PRISONERS ESCAPE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 4903, 23 February 1938, Page 4

PRISONERS ESCAPE.

TWO MEN AT LARGE. Auckland, February 21. In desperate attempts to regain their freedom, two prisoners have made daring escapes from Waikeria Prison Camp near Te Awamutu. One made his dash on Sunday night and the other at 3 o’clock thjs afternoon. Both men had been at the camp for only a little more than a week and were sentenced during the recent Supreme Court session at Auckland. The men are Richard Jackson Ruff Moyle, aged 27, and Moses Tito, a Maori, labourer, aged 20. Moyle was attending a number of horses in a paddock near No. 2 camp, about a mile from the main prison camp. On Sunday evening he had been parpjled to feed the animals and then to return to camp shortly before 8 o’clock. His absence was noticed by a warder, and an immediate search was organised, but without success. A particularly daring escape right in view of the warder and the remainder of the gang • engaged in cleaning drains on a farm near the residence of the superintendent, was made by Tito. He asked permission to secure a drink of water, and a few seconds later was seen by a warder to dive into an old disused tunnel almost obscured by overgrowing weeds. The warder immediately sounded the alarm, but he had to up the other prisoners and make certain of tlieir safe custody before he could' make any attempt to follow the Maori. A search party quickly began operations in the vicinity of the tunnel, but the prisoner must have made a quick break into dense bush beyond and no trace of him was found.