A Schoolboy's Escapade.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8189, 15 May 1906, Page 3

A Schoolboy's Escapade.

Evading Search Parties. ■ WANG AMI T, May 13. A. Wanganui College bov, Fancourt Hturison, is just now bewildering tiiu police and his relatives by a rather erratic trek. Young Harrison, who is fifteen years old, is a grandson of Archdeacon Fancourt, Five days ago ho was to leave for Patea to sp nd his holidays there, but before the turn) cume.ho disappoaved. Ho is known to have had £1 10s 6d in bis pocket. Ho was traced as having been at Castleclifi* on the afternoon of his first day out. At a store there he bought two loaves of bread, a couple of bottles of lemonade, and sevoral boxes of matches. Then he made off towards Taranaki. He was next reported passing through Maxwelltown, fourteen miles away. Search parties ware formed to endeavour to bring him back to the fold. At Waverley, Harrison met some of his college mates, and told them a little about his peregrinations. Thenceforth it was quite unsafe to bo a Wanganui College boy, for the police, whose aid had been invoked in the search, fastened on one or two who were utterly innocent of. being Harrison, and could only be perauaded with great difficulty not to transport them to Wanganui. Harrison was also reported to have been seen at Whenuakura, close to Patea. The most reliable report, however, was given by the Waverley coachman to Mrs Harrison when she went there to look for her son. Recognising the boy, from the fact that he wore an oilskin coat, the coachman remembered that he had dtiven him to the railway station that morning. Inquiry was made at the ticket office, and it was ascertained that the youth had changed his venue altogether by taking out a ticket to Masterton and leaving by the morning train. The police liberated all the suspects on the coast, and turned their attention to the Wairarapa. It is understood that a boy answering Harrison's description has been seen in the neighbourhood of Masterton, but so far no success has attended the search.