MAN TAKEN FOR BUCKLEY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5289, 20 June 1928, Page 2

MAN TAKEN FOR BUCKLEY

POLICE TRACK StETTLER.

A MANGATARATA SENSATION.

The violent ringing of party-line telephone bells last Sunday evening awoke Mangatarata, a sparsely populated district on the hills west of'Hauraki Plains, "and the events that followed proved a sensation that will long be remembered. The matter really commenced during the afternoon, when a stranger, wet and mud-covered, appeared at a house in the Mangata.wihiri Valley and asked for something to eat- This was given without demur, but no sooner had the stranger departed than the police at Tuakau were informed: by telephone that the man wajsi thought to be Buckley, the escaped prisoner. With commendable quickness they got on his track and ascertained that 'he bad been, given, a lift by a service car as far its the Mangatarata turn-off on the Paeroa-Pokeno highway.

By the time the police party had reached this p6int it was getting dark, but the footprints of a, man could be traced on the - urimetalled road from where the service car had; stopped, The residents of the Mangatarata district were, summonfed by party-line telephone and organised into search parties. The roads are unmetalled, and the night was wet.

Eventually the search was postponed until morning, when the possible locality of Buckley’s hiding place was surrounded, a party having been despatched around by the Mahutu Ro.a.d. The footmarks were again located apd followed for a considerable distance without difficulty. They showed that the man had approached the house of a. settler and had. turned sharply back to the road. Feeling that this was a good, sign, the police followed them to another house, and as no tracks led away, the searchers were confident that Buckley would soon be app'rehqnded. v

After waiting until the distant parties had beep brought in for fear that resistance would be offered, the house was approached, and the knock at the door was answered by a man who was identified by the Mangatawhiri settler a.s the suspicious character. At the same time lie was recognised by tlie Mangatarata, settlers as Mr Ralph Dickson, the owner of the farm. He ha.d been driving cattle in the Poken'o Valley and his horse had broken away.