POWELKA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 376, 29 April 1910, Page 6

POWELKA.

WEAVING THE NETS. •Says the Wellington Times' special reporter:— Tor just a week now the detecuves to whom tin.' wnrkiiig-iip of the case for the Crown has been cniru-ted have Oeen busy weaving the nets of evidence which are to enmesh the guiily, whoever the guilty may be. Tiie guilty. I may say. little dream of the chain which is being put together link by link. How stupid a clumsy law-breaker is! Can an vone imagine a man who wants to get into gaol going to mil the trouble of oreaking windows., leaving lii.s finger-prints on the pieces of glass, and stamping his signature in various oilier silly ways on his performances? No man but those so peculiarly delicienl that they become wrongdoers would be so absurd; any really sensible person would discover a much easier means of becoming a .prisoner. For instance. the high school inrendiarist entered the building by a hole in a window, which hole he had made by pulling out the glass. The ineeiuliarist may have thought that the transparent documents on which he dabbed his signature with thumb and forelinger in his efforts to pull the glass out of the .putty would be afterwards destroyed in the fire. But the incendiarist w.as careless, and instead of pitching the pieces into the ■building, very naturally and thoughtlessly let them urop down near where he was standing. After the fire the broken pieces were picked up in beautiful order for the finger-print expert. They were not even smoke-blacked, and the .prints on some of them were so distinct that" without a verv elastic imagination one could ■believe that tJiey were made with extra care for the special convenience of Detective Quartennain.

At another place in Palmcrston on the same night a handy .batch of fingerprints was considerately left behind. Of course, if the fellow had known anvthing of etiquette he would .have left his card, which the property-owner could have read and understood at once, whereas the "signatures" left had to be handed over to an expert for interpretation.

Another instance of the idiocy of fch wrongdoer is the way things have been taken from one place and left at the next place entered. And, withal, that man probably has visions of escaping justice. The detectives have not completed their investigations yet. They are, as one of "the Force" said, still hard at work clearing tile decks for aci'on. When they are ready to fire someone will be hard hit. Contrary to the .-ill'.' talk which is at present the favorite mouthing of the public, the case for the Crown, will he a strong one. Unless there are some startling revelations Powclka will have to stand his trial for the shooting of Sergeant McGuire. The prisoner and his lawyer (Mi Gifford Moore, of Palmerston Xorth) have not seen very much of each othcyet, and probably will not until the former is brought io Palmer.tion again, but in the meantime the case for the defence is being assiduously attended to. Already we know that great interest will attach to a certain green skull cap which was stolen from'a house at Terrace End on the night of Saturday, April nth, and was found on Hampton's lawn on the following night on the spot where Sergeant McGuiro was (as the jury .found) wilfully shot by a person with whom he was struggling. That cap, at present stowed away, tagged "Exhibit so-and-so," is valuable evidence and should assist in the bring ing of the culprit to justice. Another point of interest from the inquest is that it was there sworn that McGuire said while he lay in the hospital that he struck his assailant in the face with his handcuffs. A mark must have been made by the hlows and more evidence may be secured thereby. The -bullet taken from the body of the late sergeant, and certain weapons have engaged the attention of the police experts, and when the Court proceedings are under way there will be no point in the whole affair which will receive more notice from the public. The prosecuting side has not definitely fixed up everything yet in regard to the charges against Povveika, but the Crown lawyer and the leading police authorities are consulting on the mutter. The task of the detectives is a longer one than some expected it to be, and it is still unfinished. However, that does not surprise one when -a retrospective of the month of sensation is taken —all the fires, the stic.king-up cases, the breakingin episodes, the thefts of food and clothing and bicycles and horses, and the shooting fatality. But in a very little while now the members of the Justice Department who have been specially engaged in the matter will have enough information in their possession for charges to be formulated. So far the charges to bo made against Powclka iaro not prepared, but it, is more than likely that the "list" will be a verv long one.