CAUGHT IN THE BUSH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17538, 2 August 1920, Page 4

CAUGHT IN THE BUSH.

A MILITARY DEFAULTER. STATION HANDS' MAN-HUNT. [BT TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON. Saturday. That the law has a very long reach and can stretch over years, was brought home to a man named Harry Willis in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, when he was charged, before Mr. J. S. Evans, S.M., with failing to register in the Heserve of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Willis instead of enrolling, bid himself in the back country, and for three or four years wandered about in the hinterland between Waiouru and Napier. «He was seen on several occasion*;, and 4§ome efforts were made to secure him, but he always managed to elude his pursuers. Willis, of course, did not take his portmanteau with adequate supplies of clothing for a prolonged stay in rough country, nor yet did he deem toilet requisites to be of any value to him. In course of time he developed a tattered appearance, his hair grew and grew till it reached to his shoulders, and his beard reached down to his belt. In this unkempt condition he wandered on to the Oruamatua station, where the station-hands, elated at the prospect of capturing a genuine wild man, hunted him down on horseback. t When they. discovered the reasons for his long sojourn in the wilds he was handed over to the police, and on July 11, at Taihape, he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for being an idle and disorderly person in that he possessed insufficient lawful means of support. Yesterday he had another three months' imprisonment imposed upon him.