“Down from Rotorua”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 368, 31 May 1928, Page 13

“Down from Rotorua”

ESCAPEES TALK WITH BIRKENHEAD MAN BALLER’S AND BUCKLEY’S CAMP Evidently Frank Bailer and % John Buckley, the two prisoners who escaped from Mt. Eden Gaol last Friday, were anxious to read the newspaper reports of their doings. “Where can we get the daily papers since last Saturday?” they asked an unsuspecting resident of Birkenhead on Monday. While Bailer, one of the escaped prisoners, was quietly bathing in a pool at Shark Bay, Birkenhead, yesterday, h© was unaware that detectives were watching him from the surrounding undergrowth. A few minutes later he was overpowered and handcuffed. Bailer offered no resistance. “You’ve got me, all right,” was all he said. In his nude state it would have been impossible for Bailer to get far away. The account of the capture and of Bailer’s return to Auckland by launch at 2.15 o’clock yesterday afternoon was chronicled in the late editions of yesterday’s Sun. TO-DAY’S SEAFtCH To-day the detectives are searching the roads and undergrowth in the Albany district, where it is believed that John Buckley, the other escapee, is in hiding. Warders from Mt. Eden Gaol joined the detectives this morning, and it is thought that Buckley may be captured before to-night. Mr. K. Day, a resident of Birkenhead, talked with Bailer and Buckley on Monday. He did not know at the time and only realised yesterday that the two wayfarers he had met were the escaped prisoners. Mr. Day met the men on the beach. They said, that they had just come down from Rotorua, where they had been engaged in a bushfelling contract. Bailer and Buckley were very anxious to see the dailj* papers, and asked Mr. Day where they could be purchased.

They told Mr. Day that they were down on a holiday and wished to know where the nearest store was, as they desired to buy some provisions. All the residents of the Albany district and the surrounding country have been warned to keep a close look-out for Buckley. RESIDENCE BROKEN INTO

This morning at about 2.45 o’clock, the residence of Mr. J. C. Yeomans, manager of the Chelsea Sugar Works, was broken into and a quantity of provisions stolen. When Mr. Yeomans was wakened by the noise he jumped out of bed and rushed outside, but the intruder had disappeared. It is thought that the thief may have been Buckley, who was in search of food when he found that his camp had disappeared yesterday. Bailer’s capture was a smart piece of police work. Suspicions were aroused by some discoveries on the waterfront at Ponsonby. Yesterday morning Detectives Knight and Davis, of the Auckland station, were sent across to Birkenhead, where they were joined by Constable S. Bishop. Residents of the district had noticed that a camp had been pitched recently in Shark Bay, so they informed the police. The detectives made their way cautiously toward the camp through dense undergrowth, and were rewarded for their efforts when they saw Bailer bathing in a pool. PLENTY OF FOOD In the camp which the two men had made was an amazing array of food and clothes and a small dinghy was drawn up and hidden in the bush nearby. These were brought back to Auckland yesterday afternoon after the capture had been made. It is thought that Buckley and Bailer had rowed themselves across the harbour on Saturday in the dinghy which they had evidently borrowed from the Ponsonby waterfront. Among the articles brought back to Auckland by Detectives Knight and Davis were tins of 'biscuits, apricots, fish, sugar, tea. a spirit stove, a mirror, a scabbard from which the knife was missing, several blankets and sweaters, two tents, the dinghy, a saucepan, enamel mugs, cooking utensils and a tin of Glaxo.

Bailer has not yet been charged at the Magistrate’s Court. The two prisoners escaped rather mysteriously from Mount Eden Gaol last Friday evening soon after 6 w clock.