HOUNDED BY GRIM FEAR

NZ Truth, Issue 1262, 6 February 1930, Page 5

HOUNDED BY GRIM FEAR

Young Girl Who Stole Few Pence Seeks Refuge In Lupins

TERRIBLE SUFFERING IN BUSH

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Dunedin Representative.) How long can a 19-years-old girl live -without lf oo,d and water and but scantily dressed, while exposed to the vilest of stormy weather on the rain-sodden wastes of an ocean beach?

HPHE answer was given : m the Dun--1 edin Police Coui't when a well-set - '•• up young girl pleaded guilty to a charge of having stolen 7d. from a church poor-box. The girl's appearance m court was the final episode m an amazing story of juvenile foolishness, fear of the law, and youthful endurance. As told to the court . by Seniorsergeant Quartermain, it appears that nearly six months ago a church om--cial .caught the girl tampering with a subscription box. Asked who she was, she gave a false name, and when the police were summoned she disappeared. A week or so later the police located the girl's correct address and called at the house. On Ithe appearance of a constable the girl flori and for four days defied capture. For four days and four nights she hid herself m the lupin bushes along a desolate portion of the St. Kilda beach.

That she survived, without food or water, sparsely dressed, and with no shelter, m the atrocious weather, is difficult to imagine. So determinedly did the fearstricken girl stick to her retreat that searchers m the maze of lupin scrub failed to locate her. But for the rovings of two schoolboys, who heard a frail voice cry out for water, it is doubtful if she would ever have been located alive. The accused had no counsel to plead for- her, and m the circumstances the senior-sergeant explained to Mr. Bundle, S.M., that ever since her experience the girl had; been an inmate of the public hospital, where she had been treated for shock and exposure. While m hospital she had suffered the loss of two toes as a result of her ordeal m- the beach lupins. .The agreed with the police officer that the unfortunate girl had suffered enough punishment, and adjourned the case for 12 months. Her name was suppressed.