GAOL BREAKING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5, 7 January 1902, Page 3

GAOL BREAKING.

SENSATIONAL ESCAPE AT

WANGAJNUI

(By Telegraph.-Press Association.)

WANGANUI, Monday

A good deal of excitement was caused here tnis afternoon by tne escape from gaol of four waiting trial prisoners. At the time part of the staff was out with u.e hard labour g-ano-, and the gaoler was engaged at the°Court. Two warders were in charget of the prison. About three o'clock the men assaulted Warder Steele, and locked vim in a cell, and then did the same with Acting-War-der Eedmond. The alarm was given by another prisoner, who rang up the police, and all hands turned out in pursuit, but the men had not been caught up to the time of telegraphing. The men at large are: McDonald, waiting trial on a charge of burglary at Bunnythorpe; Moores, waiting trial on a charge of cattle stealing at Feilding; and Thurston and Howard, waiting trial on a charge of robbery from the person at Wanganui.

NEW PLYMOUTH, Monday. While working around the^ gaol buildings, this morning, a prisoner named Schriener, sentenced in October to three years for forgery, escaped. He got half an hour's start, and is still at large.

Schriener by some means got hold of a private coat and escaped through a window. He left the prison trousers behind after getting out, and then got clear away. A search party was out till late to-night, but saw no sign of the man.