QUARRY STALKED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24101, 21 October 1941, Page 6

QUARRY STALKED

was loaded in the chamber and had three rounds in the magazine. Constable Ross and Groweott arrived soon after the shot and covered me while I walked up to Graham. 1 called out, and Sergeant Callaghan and the others came up. "The safety-catch of the automatic was in the firing position and there were some cartridges in the belt he wore outside his ovfercoat." Carried to Army Truck Private Collier was bj T himself, and gave what first aid he could. He said later that he saw immediately that Graham was badly hurt from the shot fired by Constable Quirke. The wound on the body was a bad one and the left hand was in a very bad state. "It was so bad," he .said, "that it would have expected anyone to have contracted blood poisoning from it. I gave him a sedative to relieve his pain, but did not carry out an extensive examination of the wounds because I am not a doctor. He was conscious all the time and talked to me. He was able to tell me when lie was comfortable." Private Collier had Graham carried the quarter-mile from the knoll to the waiting Army truck on a hurdle and then made him comfortable on straw. The truck was driven slowly toward the ambulance which was coming from Hokitika carrying Dr. L. B. Wilson and three nurses. The two vehicles met about two miles from Growcott's farm and Dr. Wilson gave Graham some attention. He was then made comfortable in the ambulance with hot water bottles and reached the hospital at about 9.45 p.m. Relief in the District News of the capture of Graham travelled through the district within a few minutes of it happening. It was the news that has been hoped for for a fortnight. One woman said, "Thank God, we can sleep now." Another said: "It was wonderful to see the lights going up again all round the district." Most of the men have been busy enough to be able to forget their anxiety to some extent, but for the women of the Kokatahi and Koiterangi flats the last fortnight has been one of unrelieved strain. It had been a tiring and difficult hunt for the police, army and settlers, and not one person near the townships or on the flats under the hills was not showing some sign of strain. CONSTABLE QUIRKE SHORT POLICE SERVICE POWELKA HUNT RECALLED The police officer responsible for bringing the man-hunt to an end. Constable J. D'A. Quirke, is a temporary constable at Auckland and was one of a party of 14 which went, to the South Island from the city force. Aged about 25, Constable Quirke joined the Police Force in Auckland iu September last year, having previously been employed in the Taumarunui district. He is living at the Auckland police barracks. His home is at Pahiatua.

SCENE OF SHOOTING CONSTABLE'S STORY FUGITIVE FULLY ARMED TAKEN UNAWARES (SR.) HOKITIKA, Monday Stanley Graham was shot at 6.50 this evening near Growcott's farm at Koiterangi by Constable Quirk©, of Auckland, and now lies in the Westland Hospital seriously ill, not only from the single shot from Constable Quirke. which hit him in the abdomen, but also from a very seriously septic wound which he received in his left hand a week ago. Graham was armed with his Mauser rifle, which was fully loaded, and with a fully loaded automatic pistol He did not know that anyone was near him and fell before he used his weapons. Besides these two wounds Graham has another through his shoulder. Only one shot was fired this evening. "Going to Give Himself Up" Graham was wearing an ammunition belt over a leather coat. He was brought from near the scene of the shooting a few miles by Army truck and was then transferred to an ambulance. In the truck Graham told Private W. Collier, of the N.Z.M.C., Burnham, who gave him first-aid, that when Constable Quirke walked up to him after shooting him Graham said, "You got me." To Private Collier he said: "I did not need that last lot, I was coming in to give myself up." Graham was in a very filthy condition.

Constable Quirke was a member of a party consisting of Henry and Robert Groweott, farmers, G. M. Lindsay, who works at Stopforth's mill, Constable Edward Ross, of Lyttelton, and Sergeant G. Callaghan, of Wellington. Seen Through Glasses

The capture of Graham was a result of cool work on the part of Quirke, Ross and Robert Groweott, who stalked the wanted man through the scrub. Constable Quirke was about 25' yards from Graham before he shot him and had waited to make perfectly sure of his shot in the failing light.

Lindsay and Robert Groweott went out at 6.45 to a position near Growcott's farm to watch for Graham and through the glasses they were carrying saw him clearly about a mile away. Groweott then went back to stop the police and Army cars that were coming up the road bringing the night watchers to their posts and came back with them while they took up their positions. Sergeant Callaghan then handed to Groweott a specially powerful pair of glasses that he was carrying and Groweott had no difficulty in establishing Graham's identity beyond doubt. Walking Very Slowly Graham was then about three-quar-ters of a mile awav up a valley behind the cowshed at the farm. Constable Ross, Constable Quirke and Mr. Robert Groweott walked toward a little scrubcovered knoll, for which Graham seemed to be making, and went to the top to get a clearer view of the approaching man.

"From there .1 saw Graham coming toward nie on a track about a quarter of a mile away," said Constable Quirke in describing the shooting. "I waited until Graham got within 100 yards. He stopped every chain or so and looked round, lie was walking very slowly. He came to within 50 yards and disappeared round a knob. He was out of sight for three or four minutes. 1 then decided to creep through the scrub in the direction that I then thought him lo be, and while I was doing so Constable Ross and Growcott were also on the knob stalking him. Dropped on his Face "I had gone about a chain when 1 saw him peeping through a wire fence, i went forward another 10 yards when I could clearly see him about 20 or 25 yards away. He was close to the wire fence and had his left side toward me. He bad a rifle with liirn and was dressed in a leather overcoat and brown beret.

By coincidence the part played by Constable Quirke in the search for Graham recalls another great manhunt in New Zealand. In 11)10 his uncle, Michael Quirke, was shot dead when a voluntary searcher for Joseph John Powelka, Palnierston North butcher, who escaped from the Lambton Quay police cells and was not recaptured for two months. The shot was fired by another searcher by mistake. Powelka subsequently again escaped and was never recaptured.

"1 rested my rifle on the side of a stump and fired. Graham dropped on his face. I reloaded and approached him, and when I reached him I could see he was badly wounded. The bullet went into his left side and came out on the other side, a little lower down, lie was groaning, and said, 'You got me.'

"I picked up an automatic two or three feet away and removed his Mauser rifle. Both we're loaded. The automatic