YOUNG MAN SHOT DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1068, 4 September 1930, Page 1

YOUNG MAN SHOT DEAD

Tragedy Near Lake Coleridge quarrel with two swaggers Man-Hunt Going On In Snow-Storm Special to THE SUN , CHRISTCHURCH, Today. •TRAGEDY overtook Robert Allen Cockburn, aged 23, a 1 farm hand, yesterday on the property of the Lake Station, owned by the Murchison Brothers, near Lake Coleridge, but several miles off the main road. Cockburn was found dead on the roadside by Mr. F. Langbein, engineer of the Public Works Department, Christchurch. At first he thought that an injury to Cockburn's chest had been accidentally caused, but examination revealed a gaping shot-gun wound and the story of Ronald Stewart, a truck-driver, indicates that Cockburn was murdered. No gun was found and a large body of men is now scouring the countryside in a snowstorm in search of two swaggers who carried a gun and who were seen talking to Cockburn.

Cockburn. who was a sou of Allen Cockburn. late of Oxford, had been employed by the Murchison brothers as a farm hand for some years and was well-known in the Oxford. Coalsate and Lake Coleridge districts. Yesterday morning he was working a tractor on top of the Acheron Cutting, a mile or more from the station homestead. He was working at the side of a winding, hill-country road when Ronald Stewart, who was driving a truck carting shingle to the Acheron Cutting for his father, came along. Cockburn and Stewart* talked for a time and while they were so engaged two swaggers walked past. One was middle-aged, the other was much younger, and one carried a gun, apparently a shot-gun. FOUND LUNCH STOLEN Cockburn left Stewart and went a short distance along the road to collect his hilly of tea. sugar and lunch, which (had been left on the side of the road down which the two unknown swaggers had passed. He found that his lunch had been stolen. Ste~art. apparently called by Cockburu, went toward him and both started off down the road after the iwo strangers, who were overtaken and taxed with having taken Cockburn’s lunch. Stewart left Cockburn in conversation with the two men and only the two swaggers may be able to say what led to Cockburn’s death. Hr. Langbein was motoring along the road in the early afternoon when he came on the body of Cockburn on the roadside. Langbein thought

that Cockburn had been killed in an accident with his tractor, which was not very far away. He got in touch with the Darfleld police and was proceeding toward Coalgate when he met Constable M. H. Gibson, whom to told where to find the body. Constable Gibson took the body into Coalgate still under the impression, apparently, that it had been an accident. It was discovered, however, that the extensive wound in Cockburn’s chest had been caused by a gun-shot and when Ronald Stewart told his story, what seemed to be a simple accident developed the sinister aspect it now bears. POLICE START SEARCH ; News of the tragedy was communij cated to the police in Christchurch i and Detective-Sergeant J. B. Young and three other detectives left for the j scene late yesterday. The police from all the country stations and all the available men from the lake countryside are now concentrated on a systematic search for the two men whom Stewart last saw talking to Robert Cockburn. It is snowing in the Lake Coleridge district today. A later message says !'*as officially announced this morning >v Inspector Alan Cameron that foul play is suspected at present. A further party of police has left to search for the two swaggers. The two swaggers are said to have been seen earlier in the day by Mr. John Murchison, one of the owners of the Lake Station, and he has given a description of them to the police.