WAS IT MURDER?

NZ Truth, Issue 441, 6 December 1913, Page 5

WAS IT MURDER?

Picket Price Found Drowned.

Last Seen on Picket Duty.

Some very ugly rumors were current m striko circles and about town t-n Tuesday morning iast as to the actual fate of the unfortunate waterside worker whoso oody had been found floating m the harbor. As tho man, Price, had. been on ticket duty at tho Tarabaki-Btreet wbart on the night preceding his disappearance there was a strong feeling among his work mates that the circumstance ot his death provided gravo grounds for suspicion of foul play. A desire was expressed that a member vt the Strike Committee should view the body and make what inquiries he could from the police authorities as jto the finding of the body and its condition when found. A member of the committee therefore set out to make tho necessary investigations. On his way to the morgue he called at this office and Informed, "TrutU" *>f his mission. A representative of this paper thereupon undertook to accompany him on his sad quest, and* th>* two wont forth together intent on viewing tho body m the morgue. The authorities, however, CONTRARY TO THEIR USUAL ' CUSTOM, refused permission, on the ground that the body had already been identified, and the two searchers nfter truth were curtly Informed that no one else would be permitted to view Itv Whether Picket Price's death was self-sought, the result of an accident, or caused by the act of a person or persons unknown, lg Jjkely to remain a mystery. The theory of suicldo is not entertained by thoso who knew him best. A well 'known buoinoaa man said that he had known Price for a number of years. Tie was a bit of a lighting man In his way, was a nuggotly specimen of humanity, and the last man who would bo Hkeiy to comImlt suicide. That It may have been tho result of an tt'ccldont J« not only possible but probable, and this v|<iw would probably have been readily accepted at any other time. Hut the fact that tho man In -question was r»n picket duty at the time he m»t his death, and the subsequent unusual , refusal of the power* that be to allow a membor of the Strike Committee to view tho body, together wjth the ugly, though so far unconfirmed, story that one of the men who helped to tako the body from tho water, said there was a mark ot a running howllno round j the neck and another of a heavy I hlo«\ nt» with a Imton^ on the hend, gives (he whole affair a rather sinister look, and leaver tho Impression that poor Prlco may have been *TnE VICTIM OF FOUL PLAY. So far, however, this incks confirmation. inxjuirlcH were made at the \ Detective Department on Thursday last n» to tho nature of the evidence adduced at tho inquest. The s v lament of no witness rained any such suspicion. One curious departure from official routine xratt mado on 'Vxu-ntlay. A communication snld to bo ortlelally Inspired. w«« received by tho .Executive of the Waterside Workers' Union to tho efToot that there was nothing m the caeo

to suggest anything but that Price had committed suicide. Why it was thought necessary to do so, ''Truth" does not know, but takes it as tantamount to an admission on the "lpart of those concerned that they themselves, for their • own reasons, were anxious .that the statement should go abroad that the case was one of suicide, and not, as many suspect, and some believe, one of murder. .