RECAPTURED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 8 February 1926, Page 6

RECAPTURED.

AT TER SENSATIONAL ESCAPE. PRISONER'S LIBERTY" ENDED. (By Tele-graph —Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Sunday. The two prisoners, Charles Wahle and Samuel Rattray, who made a .sensational escape from tlie prison camp at Rangitoto Island -last Tuesday morumg in a dinghy fitted with an outboard motor, were recaptured at the back of Cowes Bay, Waihcke, yesterday morning. Information that the men were somewhere in the vicinity of- Waihcke island was received by the police on Friday night, and detectives and constables were despatched by steamer. Constable Islev. who is stationed at Waihcke, states that yesterday morning Mr. W. J. McConnell, postmaster at Cowes Bay, saw the -two escapees leaving the rear of his store with a bag containing bisediits, which they, had taken from the storeroom. McConnell immediately informed Constables Butler and Ycoward, who, accompanied by Constable Isley, went to Connell’s place. Wahle and Rattray were traced into the bush -behind Connell’s Bay, and after a search lasting two hours the police party were hot on the track. The first to locate the men was Syd-n-?v Weir, who saw them in the bush. 'The other constable soon arrived, and both Wahle and Rattray submitted to rfrrest quietly, contrary to expectations. Neither of -the men appeared to have suffered from hunger or the weather. Both were clean shaven. In fact, tlicir gear included a shaving outfit. The onlv thing they said they were in need of was cigarettes. Both were clad in civilian clothes, having got rid of their .prison garb. . They wore ordinary caps. They stated that the dinghy which they used to escape from Rangitoto was blown on the rocks near Church Bav and wrecked, one side being stove i'n. They had been using a •blanket for a sail and intended to make •for the mainland when they were east ashore. 20 miles from "where they were arrested. They state -that they had experienced a bad time since the} msec rtheir escape on Tuesday. After both had been arrested and handcuffed a search of the immediate vicinity revealed that the men had lit a camp fire, killed a lamb and after cooking it over the fire had eaten it P.A.