THE RUAHINE MURDER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16751, 5 January 1915, Page 10

THE RUAHINE MURDER.

HOW THE ARREST WAS MADE. [FKOM On* CoRRISrONDINT.] WELLINGTON, January 4.

The final, scene in the capture of Rotterman, the man wanted on the charge of having committed the M'Oann murders, at Ituahine, shows how he nearly escaped for a further period, though the police must inevitably have„caught him, .knowing that he was in the Terawhiti country. Rotterman spent the night before his arrest in a sheep station with only a male cook for his companion, the hands being in town. Three men woro noticed away in the distance approaching the station. The cook knew they were strangers for none of the hands was expected home, and he remarked this to Rotterman, who told the cook he thought they were police, adding that he was a Norwegian ship's deserter. Forthwith Rotterman made for the scrub.

In a little while the-police arrived, but the cook would tell them nothing. It seemed for a while as if a deadlock Jiad been reached, but the police told the cook that the man they wanted'was Rottorman, and the remark had a magical effect. The cook shielded the fugitive no longer. He gave the police all the information he could, and divulged Rotterman's hiding plnce. He took the officers outside the house, and. pointing to a lump of scrub bush a little distance away, said: "That's where ho is." Three officers-- -Detective-Sergeant Rawle, Detective Dempsey and Mounted Constable Pearson--of the pursuing party approached the place of concealment with, drawn revolvers and' prepared for what might come. There was. however, no desperate encounter. From where he crouched against a tree, Rotterman could see what was transpiring, and knew he was trapped. He simply rose, and walked out to the police,- saying: "Take me; I'm yours."