Motor Cycle Hidden In Thornton Domain Gone Without Trace

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 49, 4 February 1949, Page 5

Motor Cycle Hidden In Thornton Domain Gone Without Trace

A motor cycle which had been hidden in the Thornton Domain for three weeks or more disappeared between Sunday and yesterday. Altogether, the circumstances are strange. / Could there be a connection with -the murder? Could the whole thing have been premeditated, and this a prepared getaway? That opens up an entirely new line of speculation. Strangest thing in a strange story is that no one has reported a miss:ing motor cycle. Yet, two weeks ago from last Sunday a child, wandering away from a picnic party at the hack of the dressing shed in the Thornton Domain at the mouth of the Rangitaiki River, found a motor cycle pushed into the scrub and covered with brush and grass. From his description of it, it would have been an English make, well shod, painted a uniform dark ■ colour, probably black. Coincidence? He mentioned it to his parents, who took the then logical view that it belonged to another picnicker who had perhaps covered it to screen it .from the sun. They forgot it. But, when the children went to the Domain again last Sunday, two weeks later, the machine was still there, apparently in the same spot, ■ covered in the same way. It intrigued them. They examined it more closely,, accompanied by an adult relative. This time they noticed a box, perhaps 18 inches by 9 inches, tied to the parcel carrier. When they reported that at home, ; it was commented upon as a strange circumstance. But no one attached much importance to it then. Sinister Significance? It was only after reading the re;ports of the murder on Tuesday

night and Wednesday morning that their father began to think the thing might have had sinister significance. He reported it to the Countv engineer, Mr C. H. Brebner, who immediately passed the information on to the police. Yesterday it wasn’t there. There may be a perfectly innocent explanation. But if there is, it has not come to light yet. True, there has been no missing motor cycle reported to the police. But it must be admitted it would not have been impossible for someone, contemplating the need to get out of the district quickly and in secret, to have bought such a machine and planted it for the purpose. The box could suggest preparations for such a journey.