Graham’s bullets almost wiped out Hokitika’s police force

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 21

Graham’s bullets almost wiped out Hokitika’s police force

This year is the centenary of the New Zealand Police. JEFF HAMPTON and GEOFF MEIN report on the policemen who have lost their lives since 1886, and the civilians who have been killed by the police.

At 6.50 p.m. on October 20, 1941, a single rifle shot rang out in the hills behind the tiny West Coast farming settlement of Koiterangi. The shot, fired by Constable Thomas Quirke, passed through the stomach of Stanley Graham, ending the most infamous chapter in New Zealand police history. The bizarre saga began four weeks earlier, when Graham’s milking shed was condemned by a Health Department inspector. Relations in the close-knit community soured further when Graham accused neighbours of poisoning his prize cows. On the morning of October 8, he pointed a rifle at his closest neighbour, Anker Madsen, who was passing in the street. Another Koiterangi resident sensed trouble and drove his car between the pair, enabling Madsen to flee.

It probably saved his life. Four policemen sent to investigate were greeted with a barrage of rifle fire as they approached Graham’s house.

Three were killed instantly, and the fourth died in hospital a few days later. The tragedy practically wiped out the Hokitika police force. A visiting Education Board agriculture inspector was shot three times in the thigh. He died 18 months after the shooting, although his death was found to be “indirectly due” to his wounds.

Graham calmly put his calves out with the cows to save milking, grabbed a bag of ammunition and food, and disappeared into the bush behind his farm. Home Guardsmen joined police reinforcements from throughout New Zealand in what became a tense, 12-day manhunt. Graham was a crack shot — it was said that he could shoot a stag between the eyes at 500 paces. He also had an intimate knowledge of the surrounding bush.

On the night after the first

shootings, he returned to his house and was challenged by two Home Guardsmen. Neither lived long enough to tell the story. The death toll had risen to five, with two seriously ill in hospital to die later.

Koiterangi was thrown into a state of terror. Most women were moved from the district, the school was closed indefinitely, and every available man waited with a loaded rifle at his side.

“The Press” reported on October 13 that “... if he comes out tonight he will be met by a professional and amateur army, well dug in in deep, sandbagged pits, and armed with Lewis guns, Tommy-guns, and all the paraphernalia of a besieged township. “In daylight, the hunters look for Graham. At night they wait, and Graham can, if he chooses, come and look at them. He has field-glasses with him, and if he has a post of observation in daylight Graham must know by now what he has to face if he tries again to go to his house. “The physical drain on some of those in the search, and especially the settlers who have to milk big dairying herds night and morning, as well as aid in the search, must be great. “Haggard and gaunt men are everywhere to be seen. Some have not averaged two hours sleep in 24 since Graham first took to the bush. “Near Graham’s home the only noise at night is the almost continuous croaking of frogs.” As the-search dragged on, the police were presented with a variety of propositions to end the tension.

An elderly deer culler from Dunedin offered to go into the bush and stalk Graham alone. Others suggested the use of gas or the services of a water diviner. Two local men wanted to attach a big screen on the front of a bulldozer, and drive it through the bush where Graham was thought to be hiding. Cabinet Ministers visited Koiterangi, and bookmakers offered

odds on how long Graham would remain at large. War-time German radio is said to have broadcast messages saying that if Graham would take the South Island, they would take the rest of New Zealand.

In desperation, an aircraft from the Royal New Zealand Air Force was used to drop bombs through the bush in an unsuccessful attempt to flush him out Graham was eventually sighted in scrub about skm from his farm. Constable Quirke, who stalked the wanted man through bush, described the final chapter in the saga: “I saw him peeping through a wire fence. I went forward another 10 yards, when I could clearly see him about 20 or 25 yards away. He was close to the wire fence, and had his left side towards me. He had a rifle with him, and was dressed in a leather overcoat and a brown beret.

“I rested my rifle on the side of a stump and fired. Graham dropped on his face. “I reloaded and approached him, and when I reached him I could see he was badly wounded. He was groaning, and said, ‘You go me. I didn’t need that last lot. I was coming in to give myself up.’ ”

Graham died in hospital the following morning. Politicians were convinced that he was insane, although many West Coasters disagreed. The Labour Government had just abolished the death penalty, and it was widely thought that Graham had decided that, after shooting one policeman, he might as well be in for a pound as a penny.

Constable Quirke had connections with the previous big manhunt in New Zealand. His uncle, Michael Quirke, was shot dead while searching for Joseph John Powelka, a Palmerston North murderer who escaped from the Lambton Quay police station in 1910. The shot was fired by another searcher who mistook Quirke for the wanted man.