ARMED SOLDIER

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24194, 9 February 1942, Page 4

ARMED SOLDIER

FIVE WEEKS AT LARGE ARREST MADE AT TAUPO (0.C.) ROTORUA, Sunday In battle dress and armed with a rifle and fixed bayonet, a soldier, aged 23, was arrested in the Taupo district this afternoon, after being absent from camp without leave since .January 1. During this time, according to his own statement, he had wandered about the country, including the Thames and Coromandel districts, and had spent a fortnight on a farm at Tirau and two days at Rotorua without arousing suspicion. It is statec by the police that no notification of hi* absence was received from the military authorities. The soldier arrived at Taupo on Thursday and spent the night in one cf the Maori villages. Next morning his presence was reported to Constable W. McNuJty, in charge of the Taupo station, by Maoris, who considered it strange that a soldier apparently on leave should be carrying a rifle and bayonet. The constable took him into custody and, as the only available cell was small and uncomfortable, allowed him out to cut firewood. About 4 p.m. he disappeared into the thick scrub which surrounds the police station. After a prolonged search he was arrested this afternoon at a State forestry camp on the Napier side of Taupo. A military escort will be sent to Taupo from Rotorua.