A WILD CHASE

Northern Advocate, 8 February 1936, Page 6

A WILD CHASE

MAORI AND A DRIVER

[Special to “Northern Advocate.”] TE KUITI, This Day.

The main highway from Te Kuiti to Hangatiki is not by any means a speedway, but such it proved to be this morning when a patrolman of the Automobile Association, Auckland, at a speed of 65 m.p.h., tried conclusions with a Rotorua Maori, who with a few seconds’ start in a high-powered car, which is alleged to have been stolen from Rotorua, was touching 85 m.p.h. when he finished in a ditch on a bend in the road.

Word was received by the local police this morning that a car, which had been advertised as missing from Rotorua, had been seen in Te* Kuiti. A Maori, clad in white singlet and trousers, and in a car answering the description, caught the wary eye of the patrolman.

Sergeant S. Sparks did not wait to don his uniform, but set out on the chase in his trousers and singlet, accompanied by Constable Collins. The first few miles were covered in record time, but the fugitive gained when the winding, part of the course was reached. However, on one • of the bends the car was found ditched. It was taken back to Te Kuiti, while Sergeant Sparks and the constable took up a position from which they held command of the scrub-covered country behind.

j, A heavy storm wet the fugitive to the skin, and he was seen to emerge [.from the scrub, presumably in the hope of gaining a lift from a passing car. The car, with the police in plain clothes, was hailed, and the Maori, stating that he was cold and wet, asked for a lift to Te Kuiti. “Certainly,” was the Sergeant’s bland reply, "to the Police Station!”

The missing car, which is owned by Mr John Cleary, of Hamilton, was driven back to its owner this afternoon.