WAIKINO TRAGEDY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11660, 26 October 1923, Page 5

WAIKINO TRAGEDY

“ OUT, DAMNED SPOT!"

fiCHOOL BUILDING DESTROYED BY FIRE.

MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE. Per Pre«s Association. WAIHI, October 25. About 5.39 last night the Waikino Bchoclhouftc, at "which the* dreadful shooting tragedy occurred on Friday last, was burned to the ground. A meeting of Waikino householders was being he'd for the purpose of urging tiio Auckland Education Board to remove the building to a more central and suitable site, when a resident rushed in and announced that the building was burning. The meeting immediately broke up, and those present proceeded to the scene of the fire, where they found nothing but smouldering embers. The police are now engaged in investigating the origin of the fire. Mr Reid, the headmaster, Constable Olson, and the boy Bustard, who were dangerously wounded bv Higgins in the •shooting tragedy at 'Waikino school last Friday, are reported to be making fair progress. ADDITIONAL DETAILS JUST BEFORE THE SHOOTING. In a statement made by Miss Ida May Bell, one of tho lady teachers at the Waikino school, describing the scene when Higgins entered school, she says: “As I was attending to class work outride, with the children in front of the study window. I heard Mr Reid say to someone inside the study ‘take a scat.’ I heard some talking between Mr Reid and some other per* son in the study. T heard Mr Reid eay, ‘Well, if you are going to take the law into your own hands/ and I did not listen to any more of the conversation. I took the children into the shelter shod und.'rreath the back of the school, and sent one of the hoys to see what lime it was. Ho returned i.nd told me it was 10 a m. I then went into the infants' room on the right hand side of the corridor, from the back entrance. A few minutes later, while I was in the rrom, I heard a shot fired in the study. JUST LOOK AT THE INFANTS. “I then walked into the corridor, in the direction of standards two, three and four classrooms/' added Miss l*ell, “and whilst doing so I saw a man coming out of the study with a revolver in his hand. He walked past me with the revolver uplifted in his hand ard walked into the infants’ room. I informed Mias Grahana that there was a man'with a gun, and about live seconds later the man came into the room with the revolver in his hand and fired shots. I don’t know v.ho he fired, at. We got behind a cupboard. All the children stampeded, and we all rushed out to the playground. When passing the study window I saw Mr Reid, udio waved to us to get away At the same time Higgins was coming down the front steps teeing the direction we were going * Higgins apparently went round to the front of the building at this point. THE SHOOTING OF McLKAN. Describing the shooting of the boy McLean (deceased) another boy, Richard Fitch, aged 14. states: “Higgins fited the first shot in our room clcwo to the door. He then walked up to McLean and fir&3 directly at him. McLean put up his hands to his face. All the boys rushed through the doors and v. indows. McLean got up and walked after being shot. Higgins fired several shots in the room. I was the last to leave the room. McLean dropped in the corridor and had three snots in hie body. I saw Stewart (deceased) lying close to the stove, with blood coming from a wound near his eye/’ SELECTED HIS VICTIMS. Miss Doris I. Hewitt, a teacher, makes an important statement supporting the contention that Higgins selected certain children to kill. She says Higgins came into our class room with a revolver and walked up the fust row of desks, and commenced shooting as he walked along between the desks. Ho appeared to oe picking out certain children to shoot.

Other statements show that Mr Reid (headmaster) spoke to Higgins through the window previous to the latter com ing into the school.