A BAILIFF SHOT.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9163, 22 July 1895, Page 5

A BAILIFF SHOT.

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.)

INVERCARGILL, July 21. Yesterday afternoon two bailiffs named Middlemess and Hugh Stewart, of Gore, proceeding to execute a warrant on the form of John Keown, at Balfour, were ordered to stop by Keown when about two chains from the house. As they continued to advance, Keown fired, and a charge of shot struck Stewart about the head. Tbe man rolled off his horse in the yard. Middlemess does not seem to have done anything for his companion, but galloped to Riversdale, some distance away to apprise the police at Gore and other stations, although there is a telephone to Balfour. Middlemess said Stewart was dead, but the latest information is to the effect that he is not so, although the man lay in the yard and afterwards in a shed on a very frosty night. He must be badly hit, as he was unable to move from where he fell, till two men carried him into the shed. Middlemess says Keown fired at him the day before. Constable Hurlihy, from Waikaia, was the first to reach Keown's house. He found him in bed, and told him he was a constable, to which Keown responded that he supposed he had come to arrest him for shooting the man outside. Keown is a middle-aged man with a family, and is said to have been drinking lately. A doctor bos tone from Gore, and probably one from •umsden, to attend Stewart, but the Balfour telephone cannot be got to-day, and the extent of his injuries therefore is unknown here.