The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est veritas et prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1893. THE TARANAKI HIGHWAYMAN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2899, 15 February 1893, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est veritas et prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1893. THE TARANAKI HIGHWAYMAN.

[. " Robbery under Arms "in a capital town in New Zealand*, performed without let or hindrance in the year of Grace 1893 ! Really we are inclined to rub our eyes and enquire if we are not dreaming. But there it is, set up in big capitals over a telegram from New Plymouth, which records in most matter-of-fact style a genuine case of Ned Kellyism carried out on Saturday night last in the chief town of Taranaki. We are told that at a quarter to eleven on th»t night a masked highwayman, wearing an officer's uniform and sword, entered the White Hart Hotel in Devon street, opposite the Government Buildings, presented a brace of pistols, one at the head of the barman, and the other at the head of one of five or six men who were drinking there, and then coolly opened the bar door, annexed fifteen shillings which were on a tray, helped himself to a bottle of whisky, and then strode out, his sword clanging along the passage as he went, mounted his horse, and rode away uninterfered with and unchallenged, notwithstanding that there were some eighteen persons in the billiard-room of the hotel at the time, besides the halfdozen in the bar. This last circumstance doesn't say much for the pluck of New Plymouth folk wbo in these -degenerate times, show a sad faring-ott" from the plucky conduct of Taranakiites in the days when the Maories were on the war-path—indeed this highwayman, whoever he may be, seems to have established an unmistakeable funk among the burgesse* of New Plymouth. For it is not his first, nor his second escapade, as within the past two months we have read at least twice of his making an appearance in the character of a knight of the road and sticking up Her Majesty's lieges. That he has not ere this found his way to durance vile is a reproach to the whole district and especially to the police. The numerical weakness of the force in New Plymouth cannot be accepted as an excuse, for tha* is a matter which can be and ought to be promptly remedied, and the Minister for Defence owes ie to the Colony to take prompt steps to vindicate the Jaw, and to show to the outside worH that highway-robbery is not an amusement which can be indulged in with impunity in New Zealand.