NEWS OF POWELKA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144197, 13 September 1913, Page 4

NEWS OF POWELKA.

It is about two years since bjpw Zealand has heard anything of Joe Powclka. its famous gaol-breaker and criminal, whose sentence of 21 years led to so much surprise and a sort of sympathy. A northern exchange gives a' detailed account (true or otherwise) of Joe’s exit from the Terraco Gaol, Wellington, in so absurdly easy a manner and how ho escaped Irora the, country, leaving our police authorities completely nonplussed. Tiio burden ol the story is that Powelka, being a Now Zealander of Polish ' parents, excited the sympathy of some Russian Poles in the Palmerston North district.' This might have been on account of his race or through tho strangely severe sentence of 21 years passed on him. However, whatever the cause might be. Powelka was shown tho way out of gaol, in some manner ns. yet unexplained, by a* member or members of tho little Russian colony settled in the vicinity of Palmerston North; and .as soon as he emerged from the gaol on the hill he was spirited away in a motor-car. Tho paper then goes: on: to say; “Arrived at tho station, three men got out of the,car, paid:the driver, and disappeared. They wended' their way backwards towards tho wharf, where they were joined by what were in appearance a labouring man And woman who -saw them aboard tho boat duo to sail for Lyttelton. Arrived there, they stayed in tho ‘City of, tho Plains’ for a fortnight, while the detective sleuth hounds were, in vain, searching around Ashhurst and the bed of the Bangitikoi River. . Everything -quiet, they steerod their course for the golden West Coast, via tho Boalcy and the Otira Gorge. Hero-a friendly consul of use. Grcymouth had tho honour of their hiding presence for a few days, when a convenient coal boat spirited them away to Australia’s black diamond field—Newcastle. Thenco they ■ wandered np tho Queensland coast to Thursday Island, and succeeded after a couple of months' delay in getting across tho Pacific to Vancouver. Hero •they separated, and Joe PowdWa drifted to Mexico, where he has remained ever since, fighting for the rebels and earning distinction in a new field.”