WAIKINO SHOOTING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2650, 25 October 1923, Page 3

WAIKINO SHOOTING.

MOTIVE A MYSTERY. ' VICTIMS’ CONDITION IMPROV- ' ED. Waihi, October 23. The widely circulated statement that resentment caused by the receipt of a letter from the truant officer ordering Higgins to send his son to school, was responsible for the appalling tragedy at Waikino on Friday forenoon last, when two schoolboys were shot dead and six other persons were. wounded apto have arisen through t the • fact that the officer (Mr H. S. Smallhappened to lie ™ district at the time,' and was known to have previously prosecuted Higgins for breaches of the scliool attendance regulations. It was, however, without foundation. The tru-‘ ant officer had prosecuted Higgins for not sending his boy to school, and at one hearing the man had in extenuation informed the Court that his reason for not sending the boy was that he could teach him at home far better than could school teachers. ' ■: ’’ On being asked as A).whether the, prosecution had followed a compkiint from the master of the Waildno School (Mr Robert T.. Reid), the school attendance officer replied in the negative. Mr'Reid, he went on to say,' had at no time made representations to the 1 Auckland Education Board or to himself concerning the failure of Higgins to send his son to schootr The truant officer’s statemnt thus re-opens the question as to the motive for .the crime, and a solution cannot be looked for until such time as Mr Reid’s condition has suf- , ficiently improved to admit of detailing his conversation with Higgins pfihr to the shooting of Frirtay'Tast, or until the prisoner makes a statement. It is of course, still possible that the accused nursed an imaginary grievance against the schoolmaster,, believing that Mr Reid had instigated proceedings against him. but if so it is now evident that he sought to take the life of one who had not evep lodged a complaint such as he would have been jus tiffed in doing. This is made clear by Mi I .Small’s statement. It may further be said that the motive for the crime is for the time being made more difficult of solution by information given to the police by Higgins during a conversation while in the Waihi lock-up. In • this he admitted having had an argument with Mir Reid,before shooting him, but said he did not remember what the argument was about, also that he told the master that he had been persecuted at his farm. He went on to say to the police that he had a feeling that he must do something, but he didn’t know why he went to the school. The hospital reported to-day that , there was some improvement in the . condition of Mr Reid, Constable Olsen, and the boy Bustard, but they are not yet out of danger.