RESERVIST'S EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 1013, 15 November 1917, Page 6

RESERVIST'S EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

MILITARY DEFAULTER LIVES FOR SIX MONTHS IN A CAVE,

COURT-MARTIAL PROCEEDINGS

A District Court.-martial sat in tho MiihaWtttll Mounted Orderly-room, Duke street,' yesterday. The Board consisted of Lieut.Colonel T. W. McDonald (president). Coplain Mitchell and Second-Lieut. J, S. Rirkby, Second-Lieut. Day being present: for instructional purposes. Captain McDonnell act nil as prosecutor. Mr W. 1.. Filzherbort appeared tor the ' 'Michael Killalea was charged thai he failed to parade for medical examination on the 20tl) February tit ilawera, and re? mainecl absent until apprehended by the civil police at Kahura on October 29, 1917. Accused pleaded not. guilty. Major Edward Percy Cox. Commander Group 8, Ilawera, produced tho Gazette showing. nc cused's name as having been drawn in the ballot, and also the notice- to parade- at the Foresters' Hall, Hawera, for medical examination. The accused. did not parade, and witness did not see him until he was arrested and handed over to tin- military authorities. Accused rhen made a voluntary statement that he had received his notice to parade, but that he had been. advised not to report Himself, and that it he did so, it would only mean accused going away to be shot, lio then went to Upper Wai'totara and remained then- till the lOih of-'Oetolier. 1917. Prior to the.10;!) lie had intended going info Waiiotara and giving himself up, and applied to his employer for tho refund ot ,£36 which he held on his hehalf. This his employer ;agraod to repay accused, but the, same tune he told bun that if ho informed agairifil him he would blow accused's brains out. Accused then left, alter obtaining £2O of tho money owing to him and went on to another property, where he was arrested soon afterwards. The man who. advised accused still owed him £lo, which he. had handed him for safe keeping. Tho accused appeared a man who would he easily influenced by a stronger minded person. Constable Breon,' of Waitotara, stated that he received a copy ol the New Zealand Police- Gazette stating that accused was "wanted" by the Defence, Department. Witness affected the arrest of accused. .(it, Kapara, about 50 miles inland from Waitotara. When arrested accused was walking along a. track in the bush, about. 20. miles from'Kaimamika. Witness was present when tho .statement was made, to Major Cox. Accused said he was prepared to fight. He further stated that he worked for a. man who supplied him frith food, and who luid undertaken to let accused know when tiny person was approaching. Accused said he had lived in a cave at the back of his employer's place. To Mr Fit/lierbi it : When arrested, accused said: "This is not my fault, it was the others who,advised me, and told me 1 would be shot." Later accused said that, his employer was the cause of his taking to the bush. "I would," accused said, "have long since given myself up, only I was informed that .1 would bo .shot,'' Ho also said, "I am not afraid to fight, and am. even now prepared to fight;" He was very frightened and nervous when arrested, and made no resistance, lie was a different man altogether then to what he was before he had taken to the bush, eight month;; previously. Accused had £2O in his possession v. hen he was airested.

To the Court: Accused's emploj'cr did "sentry r go" while accused cut the bush for him.

Constable. Cole, Palmerston North, stated that accused made the following voluntary statement: "If it hadn't ben.n for my mate giving mn away J shouldn't have been hen'. ije sent me down the Hack for a load of tucker, when (ho constable, pounced upon me, tied me on a horse and brought mn away.'" Michael Killalea stated on oath that he was a labourer by occupation. lie had been out from Ireland three years. After arriving in Xew Zealand he went to Tcrranaki and remained there till lie

was called up. When he received his notice to parade he was working at a station and lived in a wharc with three other fellows. A man who was working for.the Public Work's Department, but" who had previously been discharged from camp .as unlit for military service, gave him a fortnight's work. ami told witness not to go into camp, as it was nei good, and that, he would nut get proper tucker then'. The iiitrii witness subsequently worked for told him lie could hide on his section, and gave him a tent. Witness could find no water so gave the tout back. The man then made him a dugout on his property, and witness lived there for seven weeks. Witness sat, in the dugout all day for seven weeks ami his employer supplied him with bread. During the night ho ventured out for a drink of wafer. The weather came on very w<

and the hole got swamped, so ho went to (ho wharo, but his employer would not let him live there, so he mado another dugout in a sandstone hill on higher "round. During' the whole seven weeks in the first dugout the man who had given him this ndvieo brought him nothing but broad, except once, when he brought a little meat. Thero was butler ou the bread only once or twice. Ho remained in the second dugout alxml six months ;:iiil worked for tile man ho had referred to, cutting tracks through tho bush, grubLing, and planting potatoes. Ho very occasionally got tea and vegetable soup, and sometimes tinned meat, and he was literally starving with hungoi;. Witness wanted to leave, but the man would noi give him tho £36 which witness had asked, liim to keep for him. lie told him thai tie- authorities were taking the! deserters on board ship. and our. to sea and dumping them overboard, and also that a lot-had-been shot in .Wellington. He behoved nil his employer fold KimV and that, if lie. gave himself up, ho would bo treated in a similar way. .'Witness 9aid ho would give'himself up, and his .employer threat • tiried to b'wwout witness'?, brains, if he informed on him. After much trouble he got £2O from his employer. If ho had not been advised by the. two men ho had spoken of he. would have answered the parade notice and paraded when called upon. He only passed the third standard in Ireland, when ho was 14 years old. To Captain McDonnell: His statement, as given bv Constable Cole, was in replyto banter from other prisoners, and he did not mean it to bo taken in the way which that witness gave it. Witness? employer helped to make, tho first dugout and. told him ho would keep him till the war was over. .'- . The decision of the Court will bo given later. ■ ' ' ■■■• ! ■■•■■ ■