False Trail

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 387, 22 June 1928, Page 1

False Trail

“Buckley” Gives District A Lively Chase INNOCENT SETTLER TRACKED If John Buckley, the escaped prisoner, had been in the Hauraki Plains district on Sunday, he would have had a fright. The violent ringing of party-line telephone bells .last Sunday evening awoke Mangatarata, a sparsely-popu-lated district on the hills west of Hauraki Plains, and the events that followed proved an incident that will long be remembered. During the afternoon a stranger, wet and mud-covered, appeared at a house in the Mangatawhiri Valley and asked for something to eat. This was given without demur, but no sooner had the stranger departed than the police at Tuakau were informed by telephone that the man was thought to be Buckley. the escaped prisoner. With commendable quickness the police got on the track and ascertained that the stranger had been given a lift by a service car as far as the Mangatarata turn-off, on the PaeroaPokeno highway. By the time the police party had reached this point it was getting dark, but the footprints of a man could be traced on the unmetalled road from where the? service car liad stopped. The residents of the Mangatarata district were summoned by party-line telephone and organised into search parties. The roads are unmetalled and the night was wet, and a diligent search failed to locate the wanted man. Eventually the search was postponed until morning when the possible locality of Buckley’s hiding place was surrounded, a party having been dispatched around by the Mahutu Road. The footmarks were again noticed and followed for a considerable distance without difficulty. They showed that the man had approached the house of a settler and had turned sharply back to the road. This was regarded as a good sign and the footmarks were followed to another house, and as no tracks lead away from it, the police were confident that “Buckley” would soon be apprehended. After waiting until the distant parties had been brought near in case resistance was offered the house was approached. A knock at the door was answered by a man who was identified by the Mangatawhiri settler as the suspicious character. At the same time he was recognised by the Mangatarata settlers as Mr. Ralph Dickson, the owner of the farm. He had been driving cattle in the Pokeno Valley and his horse had broken away. The name Buckley is not popular in the district just now.