SUPPER WAS OFF!

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3, 3 January 1914, Page 6

SUPPER WAS OFF!

THE HOST ARRESTED.

Auckland, January 1. The arrest of the host at a chaiu-

pagne supper party occurred in Auckland last night, when Detectives De Norville and Powell at a public dining resort took into custody a young man named Alfred Robert Curtis, aged 22, attired'*™ evening dress. The charge against him was that on Christmas Day he broke and entered the shop of Herbert Rowland, a mercer, in Karankahape road, and stole a portmanteaux and a largo amount of goods. A . subsequent search of the accused’s rooms discovered the a portmanteau and a large amount nred with such goods as sirk and expensive neglige shirts, decorative waistcoats, new socks oi •most costly and ornamental desigir, and ties. Following up a clue, a detective discovered that suspicion pointed to Curtis, and that Curtis had made arrangements with a caterer to hold a festive New Year’s Eve programme, including a theatre party and concluding with a supper party in which the most expensive Hquers and champagne were, to bo predominant on the menu. The supper was to be at a fashionable dining resqrt, and the detective, after having satisfied himself bv Inquiry that he was on the track of the right man, interviewed the caterer,, and arrangements were made for the supper to go on, apparently as per instructions. In actual fact, however, it was to be a mock champagne supper, and a curtained recess in the dining rooms concealed Detectives De Norville and Powell.

Shortly after 11 o’clock the theatre pa'rty of six, including two ladies, turned up in festive attire. As the members of .the gay party prepared to sit down a message took their bcanrng host to the curtained recess where the detectives awaited him. A few moments’ discussion induced

him to make a quiet exit with the detectives, and the caterer than explain- / ed to the disappointed theatre party that their host had gone for the night and that the supper was off. Curtis came before the police court this morning, and was remanded for a week on a charge of breaking and entering.