BID FOR LIBERTY

Hokitika Guardian, 25 November 1929, Page 8

BID FOR LIBERTY

MAN-HUNT AT MT. EDEN

YOUNG PRISONER’S DASH

PURSUIT 13Y AItMED WARDERS

AUCKLAND, November 20

With a cheerful disregard of armed warders, a prisoner named Seckington aged 23, made a sensational effort to escape from the environs of Mount Eden prison on Monday morning. An exciting man-hunt in a plantation followed before he was surrounded and captured. The escapee was bailed up after an, extensive and intensive search, and bleed ing profusely from a wound in one hand, he was escorted back to the prison.

At the time of the attempted escape a large number of prisoners were on parade outside the gaol wall preparatory to squads being assembled for the day’s work in the quarries. Py member of the men had been marched to the stone quarry in the corner formed by the rpihvay line and Normanby Road, but a larger party was still on the parade ready to march off to other work. It was while the lay-out of the day’s routine was in progress that Seckington saw a slender chance and took it. He broke away in the direction of the Colonial Ammunition Company’s works scrambled through' a barbed wire fence and a thicket of'fennel and found the sanctuary of the plantations which borders the company’s works. Seekington’s dash caused great excitement in the jocalitv, and the shrilling of warders’ whistles and the crack of rifle shots proclaimed far and wide the fact that once more a Mount Eden prisoner bad made a bolt for freedom.

OTHER PRISONERS TAKEN INSIDE

While efforts were being made to throw a cordon of armed warders round the plantation the other prisoners were [hu'iTiedly collected and rushed back inside the walls of the gaol. The majority of them had been Seckington’s effort and while they marvelled at his audacity, they were at least sympathetic towards a daring and desperate man who was making a bid for liberty. Search through a 1 jungle of undergrowth proved an arduous task for the armed party and while it was in progress an urgent S.O.S. message was sent to the sister service, with the result that a police party was at once mustered and set out for the. gaol. As events turned out the extra assistance was not required. .

GOYERED WITH RIFLE. Seckington was finally cornered near one of the Colonial Ammunition Company’s buildings. The bunted man was covered with a rifle and then realised the futility of resistance. His hand was bleeding profusely as the result of laceration bv barbed wire.

The recapture caused much excitement amongst the women members of the staff of the Colonial Ammunition Company. One warder had clainered on to the roof of the building, and the clatter df his heavy hoots on the iron roof was the first indication that something untoward was happening, as the noise associated with previous events had been unnoticed with machinery in operation. Curiosity was ever a woman’s possession and a report that the^ escaping prisoner had been shot drew animated groups to the windows to view the drama being staged on the hillside above.

One of the young women who skilfully fills cartridges with ballistite or whatever the explosive compound is, told a “Star” reporter this morning that it was a bigger thrill than a Wild West drama on the picture screen. “Tlie warders were lugging the man along,” she said. “Such a nice, handsome young chap, too he was. He looked quite sad. Two warders had a grip on his wrists and another warder had him by the neck. They seemed to be treating him kindly and escorted him out the front gate of the works. Some of the Normanby ltoad residents saw quite a lot of the exciting affair. “I thought first that somebody was letting ofT crackers left over from Guy Fawkes’ Day,” said one, “until the lady next door, who was hanging out clothes, said that the warders were firing their guns off. It is a pretty noisy locality, and, as a rule, we; don’t take much notice. When I saw the warders jumping round the plantation above the Ammunition Company’s works I knew that they were looking for somebody.

BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF CHASE. The most prominent feature off . the Colonial Ammunition Co’s works is the shot-tower, which commands a good view of the surrounding locality and the prison reserve from a height of one hundred feet. Immediately the alarm was given, two men scaled the tower, and from the “box-seat” as they called it, they watched the man-hunt.

“Over the back of the C.A.C. property on tlie top of the hill, the man staggered through the undergrowth,” said one of the men. “At one time, a warder was within a couple of yards of where the prisoner was hiding, but he went past and the fugitive crept a little 'further before he was captured. When the whistles blew, one of the warders ran up the trolley line in the quarry firing his revolver in all directions. For all I know they might have been blank cartridges. Tie was running flat-footed, and shouting at the top of his voice.” The attempted escape on tire part of Seekington is but another of the usually futile breaks made of late to get

away from what is regarded as the “strongest” prison in Neiv Zealand. The feat of escaping from inside the walls is rather a difficult one, nut it has been performed on more than one occasion of late, although successful only to the point of giving but brieS liberty to the men who essayed the hazardous feat. Much of the daily routifnle work goes on in the surrounding gaol reserve, where stone is shattered into suitable skies for road making and building material. A fairly big portion of the area is closely, cultivated to provider supply of vegetables for the prison. ’The work .ip, the open is said to be strictly supervised within the sight of armed warders, i Seckington’s startling dash took the warders complete]v by surprise, and'fit was foiled only by a desperate collective effort on the part of the gaol? officials’,( with a cordon thrown round the 'escapee’s prospective r0ute.,.,.;,

Seckington, it is said, was previously an inmate of a southern prison camp, from where it is alleged he made his escape, afterwards being transferred to the more secure prison at Mount Eden to serve the remainder of his term. Since he has been at Mount Eden be has been regarded as an extremely well behaved prisoner. He attended school classes three nights each week, these classes being for the good conduct men only.