Country Constable's Coup

NZ Truth, Issue 997, 3 January 1925, Page 8

Country Constable's Coup

Pupil Teacher's Lapse. (From "Truth's" Taranaki Rep.) Hiding his light behind the blue uniform of a country policeman is a later flay Sherlock Holmes. He is Constable J. Scannell, who sustains the majesty of the law m the cow. country village of Manaia, Taranaki. When James Nairn, headmaster of the Manaia Main School, woke up on the morning- of Saturday, December 20, arid found that during the night someone had abstracted £42 10s Id; from one of his pockets he listened to ! what his wife had to say about strange •noises m the house during the night and thereupon enlisted the aid of Constable Scannell. The search of the constable for revealed the imprint of tennis shoes on the garden outside Nairn's window. Now the constable remembered that the previous evening he had seen Garnet John Clark, : an eighteen-year-old pupil teacher at the school, wearing tennis shoes and putting two and two together he made a visit to Clark's lodgings. Clark denied all knowledge of-the-affair, but the constable insisted on him turning out 'his .trunk which was already packed for travelling-. Here he found a pair of tennis shoes, damp and carrying soil similar to that which was outside Nairn's window.- Clark still protested his innocence, but Constable Scannell turned down the pillows on the boy's bed and there found Nairn's wallet. The money was found m a sock under the pillow on another bed m the same room. Then Clark admitted the offence.' Constable Scannell was warmly complimented by Magistrate A. M. Mowlem and .Sergeant Henry for his expedition and cleverness when' Clark was brought before the Court at Manaia. It was stated that the accused spent most of his. cash m a billiard room and m admitting him to three years' probation Mr. Mowlem made it a condition that during that period. Clark is not m any circumstances to enter such a place. ,