THE CAPTURE OF POWELKA.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12771, 18 April 1910, Page 2

THE CAPTURE OF POWELKA.

The intelligence published this morn- 1 ing of the termination of the Palmerston North sensation yesterday by the capture allive of the desperado Powelka will be good news to the Dominion at large, and to the Manawatu district ir particular. Since by incredible oarelessness he was permitted to make his second escape from custody, Powelka had established and sustained a reign of terrtr such as is fortunately rarely possible in a British community; and the only officer who came actually to grip with him up till yesterday paid for his temerity with his life. . For although there is no absolutely undeniable proof that Powelka was the murr derer of 5 Sergeant Maguire, the presumptive evidence, coupled with,. the succession of outrages for some at least of which he undoubtedly was responsible, was. more than sufficient to throw the inhabitants of- the district into a state of nerve racking anxiety while, he remained at large. In addition to Sergeant Maguire's death, the lamentable shooting of Michael Quirke by a fellow searcher, is indirectly to be iaid to Powelka' s account. His arrest at Ashhurst 'yesterday-: morning was effected in ia manner entirely creditable to the police officers concerned, and satisfactorily concludes a course of action which cannot altogether • c said to have been conceived and executed in the best possible way. These constables were dealing with a man whom they knew to be an armed and utterly desperate criminal; one moreover whom they had reason to suppose had fatally shot a . comrade who had attempted to apprehend him. They followed him up a ladder and located him in a .loft from which for all they knew they might never have descended alive; and later, having assured that whatever their own fate, his escape would ...be impossible, they returned and took him without recourse to weapons. In the circumstances their conduct was courageous in tlie extreme. For the fact that the capture was not effected sooner the police are not altogether to be blamed. Powelka was hiding in country every inch of which he knew, and which to the majority of the police was unfamiliar. Tlie police too, were constantly embarassed in the earlier stages of their task by the multitude "" of unofficial searchers busying themselves, under arms, all over the district ; serious conflagrations and other distractions were of almost nightly occurrence, and their energies were dissipated in responding to false alarms without number, and in pursuing reported clues which led to nothing! Altogether, it is not to be wondered at that the capture proved a matter of time aiid difficulty ; and had the duty ultimately fallen to officers less cool and resolute, the pursuit have made the Powelka incident tragedy; as shocking as those which have rendered the Powdlka incident one of the-most sinister in the history of the Dominion.