MILITARY DESERTERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1897, 31 October 1918, Page 3

MILITARY DESERTERS.

A TRYING TIME/ IN THE WILDERNESS. Invercargill, Oct. 29. Four military defaulters, almost in rags and tatters, were brought to the police station to-night, having been arrested at Elfin Bay, Lake Wakalipu, on Monday. For months these men have led the police a dance, having the run of thousands of miles of wild hush country between Lake Wakatipu and the We.-d Coast. They have been living largely on birds and fish, and for six months they have had no news of (he outside world. The party originally numbered six, but life proved too trying for (wo of them, and they returned to civilisation, being subsequently arrested. The other four stuck it out, hut by degrees found the struggle too wearying, and, completely out of provisions, were driven near the haunts of-men, and were discovered at 4 a.m. on Monday. They were not armed, and submitted without, resistance. All belong to Christchurch, though one at the time of his escape was a Civil (servant at Wanganui. One escaped from Trentham Camp. The men will he handed over to the military authorities td-morrow. Invercargill, Oct. 30. The four deserters arrested in the Lake district, Thomas Cooke, William Douglas Persian, Lawrence Barton and William Wallace Yooman, were removed under escort to Dunedin to-day. They had been hiding in the bush about nine months, and living chiefly on birds and fish.