PONSONBY MURDER

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10546, 24 March 1920, Page 4

PONSONBY MURDER

AUCKLAND SENSATION WE FINDING OF THE MURDERER'S PLANT. (Special to the "Times.") The police investigation of the mui•ler of Mr Augustus Edward Braitli<vaite, at his home at Ponsonby, and the robbery of the Ponsonby Post Office, was developed on Saturday by a find made by a search party in ■ gully at the end of Somerset place, Newton. The find consisted of three email canvn» bags containing about £'23 in money, three revolvers, a quantity of ammunition, and two bunches of keys. Further details in con (lection -with ithis important discovery, which was reported in tho "New Zealand Times" yestorday, are as follow : On Saturday a party of polico pon> Bisting of Constables Devereux (Poneouby), P. Sullivan (city), Lane (Newmarket), Baker (Newton), Watkins (Freeman's Bay), and Waterman (Pnrnell), under the direction of Detective Young, took hooks and elashers and started a. systematic search along the line of a track leading from tho end of Somerset pl&ce across tno gully. They had put in a couplo ol hours' work cutting down the shrubs and undergrowth, and eearchmg.. the small trees, when they came to a large patch of tangled blackberry, four or five yards back from tho track. It was not until they reached the heart of the patch' that they had success; then one of them struck with his hook what appeared to be n, hit of old sack. As 'it was thrown down from the point of the hook it jingled, and Detective Young picked it up to find that it was a long canvas bag containing a quantity of silvev com.. In a few moments two other canvas bags were uncovered, and in them were found the articles ■ mentioned, while a jemmy was fastened to one of them. Two of the hags wer# at the ,kind usually employed by business folks for carrying money to tho bank, while the third was ionger and slimmer, and if ttsed »» » easing foi a piece of lead-pipe, or filled ■■.■ wit" nand, it would make -what :» popularly known as ft "criminal's sandbag. The place where the find wan made was borel-v a hundred yards from th« •end of the street known as Somerset place, and tho manner in which the bags were concealed seemed to. indicate that they had been weighted wi;h the jemmv and thrown into the blackberry natch by someone standing on the track.