CHASE THAT FAILED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 564, 17 January 1929, Page 12

CHASE THAT FAILED

KEG DISAPPEARS AT MAORI PARTY POLICE CAR OUTSTRIPPED (From Our Oion Correspondent) PUKEKOHE, To-day. How a police car was outstripped after a beer keg Had disappeared at a Maori party, was told in the Pukekohe Court today. “Some people are fortunate on this occasion.’’ Thus Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M., remarked when dismissing, without prejudice, charges against two men. A Patumahoe saddler and taxi driver, William McMurtrie, was charged with having supplied liquor to natives within the Waikato proclaimed area. A native named Mahu was charged with aiding and abetting McMurtrie. Both pleaded not guilty. Evidence showed that on the evening of November 10 the police visited a «Laori camp at Helvetia, near Pukekohe, arriving at 8.30 p.m. The party of two constables was directed to Mahu, who was said to have been ill charge of the camp. When taxed the accused Mahu denied that t\ere was liquor on the premises. “We visited a hut in which there were some 30 odd natives all under the influence of liquor,” related a constable. In a side room a ten-gallon beer keg was found. It contained about a quart of liquor. Near a .ireplace the police found a tin basin in which there was a similar quantity of beer. “While endeavouring to get the keg outside the Maoris crowded around and blocked us, and in the scuffle a native woman removed the keg, which was not seen again.” the police officer said. A motor-car was observed to stop some 200 yards from a gate, giving access to the camp, and then to proceed toward Patumahoe. The car was pursued by a police car, which, although it was travelling at 55 miles an hour, was losing the preceding vehicle, which was lost sight of near a cross-road past Patumahoe. A keg containing about a quart of beer was subsequently found in an outhouse of the Patumahoe Hotel along with others. Three of the four numbers found on the vessel were similar to that seen at the camp. Adolphus Parris, licensee of the hotel, said McMurtrie had purchased a keg of beer about November 5 or 6, the vessel being returned unknown to witness and found in an outbuildingon November 11. When interviewed by the police, stated Sergeant J. T. Cowan, McMurtrie admitted procuring a keg of beer on November 5 for his birthday party, and returning it the following day. He said he had visited the Maori camp, conveyed a native to Pukekohe, travelled to Patumahoe and returned to the camp later to drive Maoris to Waiuku. “The unsatisfactory part is that McMurtrie refused to give the police the name of any person who attended his birthday,” added the sergeant. There was nothing, the magistrate said, to connect McMurtrie with procuring the beer, although his actions seemed suspicious, and after hearing the sergeant’s statement he doubted accused’s bona fides.