WAIKINO SHOOTING

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11657, 23 October 1923, Page 5

WAIKINO SHOOTING

MOTIVE STILL A MYSTERY

NO RESENTMENT AGAINST EDUCATION BOARD.

"DEVIL ENTERED INTO HIM 1" Per Pr*Mi Association. WAIHI, October 22, The funeral of the two victims of the Waikino schoolhouse tragedj*. lvelvyn McLean, aged 13, and Charles Stewart, aged 9, took place at the Waihi cemetery yesterday afternoon. The hearse bearing the coffins was followed by several hundreds, including the teachers and pupils of the Waihi and Waikino public schools. The community is still profoundly stirred by the awfulness of the man’s act. and the grave anxiety felt for the lives cf Robert T. Reid, the headmaster. Constable H. J. Ulseu, and Alexander Bustard, aged 13 years, borne slight improvement in the condition of Reid, Olsen, and Bustard was reported to-day, while the girl, Kathleen McGarrv. is out of danger. CHILD'S LAST APPEAL. A pathetic incident is reported in the case of the shooting of the lad McLean. Witnesses say he appealingly put out his hands to Higgins, and said: "You won't shoot me, Mr Higgins; I wane to go home to my mother.” The lad was well known to Higgins, the McLean family and Higgins being neighbours. In the shooting of Raymond Shaw, the lad was in the act of climbing out of the window, when a bullet struck him on hie fingers, which caused him to fall back into the schoolroom. He crawled and hid under the desks, and, later, when Higgins was shooting in another part or the building, he made a second and successful attempt to climb out of the window. ACCUSED'S STATEMENTS. According to Higgins’s own state ment to the police, it appears he had no particular resentment against the Education Board, and he made no complaint against the headmaster or teaching staff. He said that during the past three years he had lost three or four horses, and their loss he attributed to the action of settlers in the neighbourhood. He said the devil entered into him when he ahot Reid, and he did not clearly know* what he was doing after, but, he added, he was sure he did not fire at any girl. WOMAN S LONELY LIFE. Higgins has a wife and two boys, aged 16 and C years. The former left school last Christmas, and the other has not started to go to school. His wife is a small, thin woman, whom he married in Canada just before leaving that country for New Zealand. During 16 years on the present bush holding, the wife has only been in Waikino township about haif a dozen times.

HIGGINS DISCUSSES CRIME ‘HE must have been CRAZY.” WAIHI. October 20. Since bis arrest Higgins liae discussad the circumstances leading up to tile tmgedc in a calm and rational manner. He said that he did not know why he went to the school, but had a feeling that he must do something. He had an argument with the headmaster (Mr Reid) before shooting him, but v hat it was about ho could not remember. He told Reid that he (Higgins) had been persecuted at his farm by certain people. Ho must have been CTazy to do what he had done. He fully realised, however, that he would be- charged v.-ith murder and was sorry- for those families to whom he had brought grief, but was not sorry for himself. He said he had carried gelignite in his pocket some days, and also carried tho revolver when he, was troubled in his Kind about something. Higgins is a powerfully built man, and expresses himself well. He is suffering from a sereve wound on the bridge of the nose, and is under medical treatment in the cells. THE HEADMASTER. Mr R. T. Reid, the headmaster, is a married man, 47 y-ears of age, and has been in charge of the Waikino fcchool since 1915. He joined the service in 1896, and previous to being appointed to Waikino, he taught at Mount Albert. Newton East, Katui, Tc Puke, Te Matai, Pnnakitc-re. liouhcra and Kaeo in succession. He was rioted for his interest in the children under his charge, not only as regard, their schooling, but their general welfare. He is a good rifle shot, and while stationed at Kaeo was a prominent member of the rifle club at that place. Mr Reid is a brother of Captain Reid, whose name will be remembered so well in connection with tho wreck of the Elingamite, many of tho shipwrecked people being rescued by bnn.