BACK IN PRISON

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18235, 2 November 1933, Page 11

BACK IN PRISON

YOUNG NEW ZEALANDER END OF DARWIN MAN HUNT SYDNEY, October 19. The man-hunt at Darwin, in which the young New Zealander Joseph Vivian Mc.Gratli figured, has at last come to an end. McGrath who was serving a sentence and iawaiting trial on another charge, escaped from the Fanny Bay gaol on September 28, and by tlie aid of numerous friends among tlie unemployed in the Darwin area ho was able to elude ■capture for many days, but such was the nature of tho country that he could not get far without fear of starvation and thirst. Living in the jungle and mangrove swamps, he must have suffered much more than if lie had been in prison, and sthe knowledge that he was being hunted cannot have added to the pleasure of his days. • Most of the credit for the rearrest of McGrath is given to two aborigines, who had formerly been police boys. They proved that their training in tho police foreo had not been in vain, for on Saturday last their suspicions were aroused when they saw tracks close to a deserted alluvial goldmining field. They followed the tracks, and before long they came across- McGrath asleep in one of tlie abandoned shafts. They agreed that one of them should watch McGrath while the other went for the police. Constable Edwards was soon on tho« scene, and when he arrived McGrath was sitting up and talking to another white man. ' I • McGrath made no show of resistance.-1 He was hungry, and it was apparent, that he was glad to he retaken. He. said ,that i lie intended to walk to Queensland or Western Australia, but it is evidentl that he found the conditions in the uninhabited north did not favor such an ■ adventure. Those who know that coun-1 try sav that it would have been certain death "for him had he set out on a long trek without tlie necessary provisions, and without water. He would have faced travel for hundreds, of miles withoutmeeting any signs of civilisation, and sooner "or iater would have been swallowed up in the great unknown, , j McGrath’s weakness lor keeping a diary did not desert him. It was his diary which landed him in gaol on a previous occasion, and his diary oil this occasion enabled the police to reconstruct all his movements since he escaped from the Fanny Bay gaol. On the first night of his escape lie doubled back to Darwin, where he was met by a number of his friends, who supplied him with a change of clothing and some food. For the rest of tho time McGrath’s ] friends kept him posted almost daily as to the movements of the police and others who were engaged in the searcli for him. By this means he was able to evade detection. McGrath has since been taken to Darwin to servo the remainder of his sentence and to await his trial.