Watching for the Horse Stabber.

Manawatu Herald, 11 April 1899, Page 3

Watching for the Horse Stabber.

" Happening to be in the neighbourhood of the Christchurch PoliC' Station about eleven o'clock one night," writes a recent visitor to th» City of the "Plains. " I was somewhat surprised to pee a number of men in plain clothes emerge from the barracks and disappear, some on bicycles and some on foot, in different direction. They were most. ly heavy, muscular fellows, and I suppose there must have been closupon twenty of tbem, all told. I ascertained af teswards that they con■titut.d tbe nightly watch which

patrols the outlying district* in tht feope of catching the miscreant, locally known as 4 ibe horse fiend,' at hia dastardly work. The expense J con_<qu*nt on the employment of this watch had been going on sinct the last caseß of horse stabbing, which occured early^ in February last, and had been going on foi mon.hs previously, though th. ecoff-rs say t)_at the watch had been relaxed a f. w days b. fore the out rages— a fact that was apparently known to the horsa etubber. Tht curious thing abont the watch is thai it h&3 to be watched, or rather super vised, and a detective goes round each bf the districts to see that the m.n ars doing their duty. Some times they are, but at- other tim. ► they cannot be found. Those thai are not found usually explain that tbey have been following a * suspect ' — which nobody can deny. Eternal vigilance is said to be the price of liberty, and it may prove efficacious .in the case of the horse stabber ; hut it seems a big price to pay when it . is reduced to cold, everyday figures. Another thing I learned about tbese matters is that the black tracker, especially imported to run the ' horse fiend 'to earth, left for sunny Sydney about the middle of March—the Canterbury weather proving too much for hi« ' . en«Uiv. physique.' "