THE POINT ELIZABETH ROAD TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 1018, 10 November 1917, Page 6

THE POINT ELIZABETH ROAD TRAGEDY.

THE HUNT FOR THE MURDERER. HALL’S CONDITION VERY SFIMOLS. (Pans Press Absooution.) GRFYMUUTH, Nov. 0. Further particulars of the highway robbery and murder show that the pay was <lone up in bags and totalled His Bd. ft would not be cumbersome, as it contained only L'UH) in silver. Tim mine ceased work on receipt of the .news, and many miners took to the •bush to .search for the highwaymen, bin, up to nightfall, had got no nearer a clue of the desperado. For some days a. stranger lias neon camping in the vicinity of Runanga, but tin' police attach little- importance to this, as there are quite a number ot military shirkers still at large and supposed to bo in the bush. A jKisse of police has been busy all day, and more arc arriving. When waited on they were very reticent as to Ihe information gained. The Coroner held a formal inquest, at Runanga on he body of Coulthard. Dr. Meade deposed that the death ol the driver was duo to bis being shot through a lung, severing the main blood i vessels. . Hall’s condition is very serious, and little hope is held out lor bis recovery, .lames is improving. Two arrests were made ol \agianls, who came awav from a brewery. The stick up was evidently premeditated for some time. According to reports which originate from the rignt quarter, a similar obstruction, a- laddei and a." box, was placed on the road at the same spot a lortnight ago, but removed by a. passer-by before the same ear passed with the. wages, otherwise the tragedy would have occurred then. An eve witness named Maiulerson told a reporter: “As lar as 1 can guess it was about twenty minutes past nine o’clock when my son Leonard and myself were biking down the bill. W lieu we turned the corner we noticed a box across the road, 1 cried out to my son ‘Get on!’ This we immediately did. At this moment, the ear turned the corner and crashed into the obstruction before it could be pulled up. Like a flash of lightning a man—a young chap, I should say, dressed in dark blue dungarees, and with Ids face completely masked—jumped, out of the bush on the right-hand side of the road just below a little rise. There was a grey clump of dense scrub there. In this ho had had a veritable ‘dug-out,’ and had remained in wait for Ids prey unseen and unheard. With a revolver.in each hand, he flopped out on to the road and cried, ‘Hands up!’ ‘Oh, God!’ J cried, ‘he. is going to shoot ns. Come into the Imsh!’ Myself and my son took to the bush, going about a chain in. We distinctly heard ‘bang-—bang—bang!’ It was a few terrible moments. We knew wo would ho inviting risk to come out. Then there was silence, and we espied a, man on the- railway with a hag, evidently the proceeds of the robbery. Ho went along towards Runanga, disappearing out of sight. Wo then came out of the bush and heard groans. We rushed up to the ear, and there found Coulthard shot dead. Willie Hall was then iu a state ol collapse. ‘Are you shot?’ ‘Where are your mates?’ I asked. Hall said, ‘l’m on fire!’ 1 found his coat on lire, I put it out. I immediately sent for the- police and doctor.”

Although nothing can he officially ascertained, it- is probable an arrest wif shortly bo made. The mine will be idle again to-mor-row.