CHASE IN THE DARK

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19758, 27 March 1934, Page 6

CHASE IN THE DARK

TWO YOUNG MEN APPREHENDED RESIDENTS ASSIST POLICE By Telegraph—Presj Association NEW PLYMOUTH, March 26. Constable E. W. Powell, at Mokau to-night was attacked and struck with a bottle when attempting to detain £wo young men who were m possession of a car allegedly taken without authority from New Plymouth earlier in the evening. An exciting man hunt under cover of darkness followed later when 20 Mokau residents under Constable Powell searched the riverside scrub for the men wno had made a temporary get away. When the men were cornered by Constable Powell and Messrs Frederick Northern and N. Taylor, another strenuous melee occurred before the men could be taken into custody. The car, a five-seater owned by Mr P. O. Pope, of New Plymouth, was taken between 6.15 and 6.45 p.m. Constable Powell had stationed himself at the Rabbit Gate, at the Mokau river bridge to intercept the car, as all drivers of vehicles have to stop :.t this point to open the gate. The car arrived at 9 p.m. and Constable Powell immediately challenged the two men in it. He asked the men to accompany him, but the driver jammed the car into reverse gear and attempted to break away from the gate. Constable Powell leapt to the running board and seized the steering wheel, when the second occupant crasHed a bottle on the constable’s jaw. He was dazed and the men decamped from the car. In spite of the desperate nature of the oposition manifested and his condition, the constable gave chase, but the men got away under the bridge and eluded him. A party of 20 Mokau residents was organised by Constable Powell and in the darkness the scrub around the river was scoured. Constable Powell and Messrs Taylor and Northern located the pair, but the men gave the three searchers a go for it before they would submit. Finally the men were taken into custody. Their names were unknown last evening, they not volunteering the information.