THE FRUITLESS QUEST

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 572, 26 January 1929, Page 8

THE FRUITLESS QUEST

FROM the mass of evidence submitted to him during a very trying' week, Mr. P. K. Hunt, coroner, has produced a cogent series of deductions to account for the death of Elsie Walker. His finding reflects deep study of the mysterious business in all its baffling aspects. The identity of the man who directly or indirectly caused her death remains veiled in mystery. Protected from the processes of the law by a peculiar set of circumstances, he escapes at least the public humiliation of an appearance in the dock, if not the greater terrors of the cell and the scaffold. Apart from the lively public interest in the reasons propounded to account for the girl’s death, the case is chiefly notable for the coroner’s strictures on the police handling of the inquiry. The force has not merited such criticism for a long time. It is doubtless if ever before in the history of the existing system a coroner has felt impelled to make such comments, and to issue a direction that an inquiry be held. The public will not expect such a plain intimation to he overlooked or forgotten, and a point of importance is that nothing should be hidden. The inquiry should not be held behind closed doors. To the credit of the Police Force it must be stated that, once the depth of the mystery was realised, inquiries on an almost unparalleled scale were conducted. The net wag cast wide and far; but it was cast too late. The inquiry may indicate the need for placing the work of the separate branches of the Police Force on a mow satisfactory basis. THE QUIET CORKER