POWELKA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 70, 13 September 1911, Page 8

POWELKA

THE MOKAU SUSPECT IDENTIFIED. The Powelka .scare, as far as it affected the Mokau district, is at an end. Senior-Sergt. Dart yesterday received- a report from Constable Warneford, of Mokau, confirming Sergeant Dart's own expressed opinion of the identity of the man who was seen crossing Mount Messenger the other night, and who was said to resemble Powelda. The man was traced to Mahocnui, and was questioned there, it being elicited that he crossed Mount Messenger at the time reported and that lie was accosted by some travellers. A man of none too brilliant parts, he could not recall the actual words which passed between him and the others, but his identity was established beyond doubt, and he was certainly not Powelka.

Sergeant Dart wishes to correct the statement made by a correspondent of the Auckland Herald, and reprinted in this journal, that the settlers in the Mokau, Rerekapa and,other inland districts were unwilling to aid the police in their search, and that they professed ignorance of the roads and so on whilst they were quite able to give all the information asked for. Sergeant Dart says that this remark is as untrue as it is unfair to the people in those districts, who were most obliging, helpful and hospitable in every case, whether at the homesteads or at the bush camps. So much was this the case that, favored by the splendid weather and the generally good roads, the search was very much in the nature of an enjoyable holiday trip through the bush country It is only fair to the settlers themselves that the erroneous impression sought to be created should be removed, said the officer, who added: "They'll think I'm a queer sort of a fellow to allow that to go uncontradicted."