HE PASSES THROUGH POLICE PATROL.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12767, 13 April 1910, Page 3

HE PASSES THROUGH POLICE PATROL.

SLIGHT HOPES OF SERGEANT MAGUIRE'S RECOVERY. .

11.10 p.m.

Things are very quiet in town- tonight, all the police being out in directions considered likely. It has been I miserably wet and cold to-day, «nd .three or four days of it would almost certainly send the fugitive, from his : hiding to seek more food. It is regarded as correct that it was Powelka who passed through Bunnythorpe about three o'clock this morning. He passed the police patnol unsuspected,- but after he had passed \ they became suspicious and called him :to stop. H© took no notice but on i their threatening to fire he jumped for the .school grounds and then dropping the sack he was carrying by the way. In the sack were two pounds of meat, one cooked and the other raw. ■Powelka disappeared through the school grounds, and was noti again seen, despite a search made by the two constables constituting the patrol. About half a mile away was Larsen's farm, and it was subsequently found that he had" made up for his lost meat by raiding their cupboard, ■securing some grilled chops, bottled fruits, and other provisions, including : pickles, for which he has shown, a great fondness in all his raids. The police continue the search throughout this and other districts, but the wet and cold has driven the ' amateur searchers and armed bands ' generally to their homes, so that the streets are singularly quiet in _ contrast to the stir of the last few nights. There is tremendous relief that Powelka has even temporarily left the town. The "Manawatu Daily Times," referring to the suggestions in the Wellington papers, and the current rumours that Sergeant Maguire was not shot by Powelka but by one of the. searchers in his own party, states that it has had the opportunity of Jully investigating the facts, and it is satisfied that .the man who shot Sergeant Maguire was the mam whom the sergeant found flattened' up against the door on. the front verandah of Mr Hampton's house to avoid observation. This man, Sergeturb Maguire states, wore a mask. The sergeant closed with him directly., and the pair struggled out across the gravel path on to the lawn, where, while still on the ground, the man shot the sergeant, either deliberately or through his revolver going off in the excitement. Detective Quartermain and Mr Hamp^ ton just then came on the scene, and Detective Quartermain fired. At the flash Hampton believes that the man ran behind the house, and then back again, and out over a low hedge at the front and across Ferguson street, into a paddock opposite, so was-, not m the block when the cordon was placed round the latter. ' ' . „, , . A local business man stated that on Monday niaht he was sbtic*. up oy a local man with two revolvers, who apparently was nob clear what he was doing, and he counselled the man to go home. The police do not consider that this story affects the. statements made by Richards, who identified the man who stuck up his cart as Powelka. The inquest upon Quirke is to take place to-morrow morning. He_ was .shot through the forehead." not with a shot gun, but with an expanding bullet, which tore off the back of his head.

Sergeant Maguire's condition^ permits of some slight hope being entertained of his recovery.