POLICE PURSUIT
ARREST OF MAORI , WARNING SHOTS FIRED LONG CHASE IN HAWKE'S BAY [by telegraph —OWN correspondent] NAPIER, Friday Five police officers were engaged yesterday in a hunt, at Raukomoana for a young Maori, Hapi Atutahi, who appeared before Mr. A. E. Bedford, J.P., in the Napier Police Court thin morning charged with unlawful Conversion of a motor-car. Following the reporting to the police of the theft of a car at Hamilton, tho breaking and entering of a store at Bay View, Napier, and the conversion of a further motor-car at Eskdale, the police set otf in search of a Maori who was suspected of the offences, anil after a s'trenuous hunt in the bushcovered hills he was captured at four o'clock this morning by Constable F. Bonnington, of Napier. Quarry Sighted The search went on throughout ye:V terday without success. Thick scrub hindered the searchers in their work. Footprints leading along the bank o! a creek appeared to have been made by the fugitive, and finally the officers caught sight of their quarry as he made away up a hillside. Several shots were fired over his hefd as a warning. He did not heed ihera, however, and was quickly lost sigafc of. Detective-Sergeant Nuttall then discovered a fire on the side of' the road, apparently lighted by the fugitive, but no further trace of him had been found by dusk; when the majority of the party, after warning the settlers in the vicinity to be on the look out for the man, went back to Napier, leaving Constables Bonnington and Walden at Te Pohue, about 00 miles from Napier. Retreat Cut OS Early this moniing the constables explored the road past Te Pohue. About half a mile past the Te Pohue Hotel, Atutahi was seen in the middle of the road, apparently hoping to obtain a ride out of the district in a car. The constables separated, Constable Bonnington going through the bush at the side of the road to get ahead of the man and cut off any retreat in that direction," while Constable Walden slowly approached along the road. Atutahi then went through a feilce at the side of the road toward Constable Bonnington, who ran down the slope and arrested him. He offered no resistance. In the Court this morning Atutahi was charged with the unlawful conversion of a car valued at £l2O, the property of Frank /Wilson. With the consent of accused he was remanded to June 7, Detective-Sergeant Nuttall remarking that further charges were yet to be laid.
POLICE PURSUIT
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22741, 29 May 1937, Page 12
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