POWELKA AT LARGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9165, Issue 9164, 14 March 1910, Page 5

POWELKA AT LARGE.

ESCAPES FROM GAOL,

MAKES FOR THE COUNTRY ON A

STOLEN BIC\CLE.

A sensation was caused in town on Saturday afternoon when it was noised abroad that Joseph Powclka, the young man in custody on various charges 01 housebreaking, had escaped from gaol, and was nownere to be found.

He was up before the Court last Monday on a series of charges, and was remanded on further charges till to-day. In the interim ho was lodged in the Palmerston cells, and on Saturday was allowed out into the gaol yard, a very small space surrounded by nine feet wails. While in this enclosure Gaoler Gleeson left him for a moment to obtain assistance from one of the constables to remove his charge to another cell. He was not away above a minute, but on his return the bird had flown.

By the wall adjoining the U.F.C.A. yard was one of the buckets which tho gaoicr had been using in washi.ng out the cells. It was upturned, and thq prisoner, an active young man, had evidently placed it against tho wall, taken a run, and then with a spring from it had caught tho top of the wall and drawn himself over.

A search of the U.F.C.A. yards revealed the fact that the resourceful escapee had commandeered a bicycle belonging to Mr Frank Kendall, one of the U. F.C.A. employees, and had made off on it. No one appears to have seen him about tho U.F.C.A. yard or in the town, and ho evidently got clear away into the open country without being seen.

The police were soon in search of their lost charge. They hired a motor car and ma-de a very rapid tour of the country, while others searched on horses and bicycles. It was thought Powelka would either make for Ashhurst, where his wifo is, or for Kimbolton, where his parents live, but he was not seen near either of those places.

Word was received early on Sunday morning that a man answering to his description had aroused Mr Row, the Bunnythorpc storekeeper, at midnight on Saturday night and bought some biscuits and lemonade, paying for them with a pound note. When ho left the police station Powelka had no hat, but at Bunnvthorpe he was wearing a brown soft felt hat well over his eyes. He had also acquired a bicycle lamp in eomo way. and borrowed some carbide from the storekeeper. The lamp was tied on to the machine with string. Following is the description given of the escaped prisoner:—Age, 28; height, 6ft; slim and wiry in build, sallow complexioned, with dark hair; scanty 14 days' growth of beard; dressed in dark sac. coat, green trousers and soft felt hat. A BURGLARY REPORTED. This morning it was rumoured that Powelka's bicycle had been found near his father's residence at Kimbolton, and as this coincided with the theory that he was making for that district' it was thought a clue had been obtained. However, later information about tho machine showed that it was not the one stolen from the U.F.C.A. yard, but it is still considered likely that the escapee might have changed the commandeered bicycle with another. This morning it was rumoured that a whare had been broken into near Bunnvthorpe, and £3 stolen, but no definite particulars are to hand. As Powelka had no money when ho left the gaol, and also had no hat nor a bicyclo lamp, ho must have secured those articles either from friends or by appropriating them without tho owner's authority, and it is quite probable that the money he bought tho biscuits with at Bunnythorpc was stolen from the whare.

Numerous rumours of a more or less alarming nature arc circulating in reference to alleged burglaries by the escaped prisoner. The latest is that ho broke into a store at Kimbolton last night and stole, among other things, a gun and cartridges. The police, however, have recch'ed no word of this exploit, nor of a few others that are being recited in the town.