A GREYTOWN ROMANCE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 287, 28 August 1908, Page 8

A GREYTOWN ROMANCE.

HOUSEHOLDER AND ALLEGED BURGLAR. - A SHOOTING INCIDENT. The misguided individual with a penchant for using firearms may take a warning from the unenviable position in which a Greytown business man has found himself. It is reported that a man was arrested at Greytown on August 19 on account of his erratic behaviour, and was subsequently examined by a doctor and pronounced to-be a fit subject for detention in a mental hospital. The person in question was under the delusion that he had been shot by a policeman in Wellington, in which city ho imagined ,ho was residing. On an examination of tho man being made, four shot wounds were found in his legs just under the shin, the wounds being described by the doctor as "dark blood-inflamed areas." Some light was thrown on the origin of the wounds a few days later, when a wellknown Greytown business man informed tho local constable that he had been awakened! by a dog barking on tho night of August 19, and on looking out of his window "saw a man prowling about his yard. He went out oh to tho verandah, and ordered tho man to go away, but receiving no reply went inside the houso and got his gun. In tho meantime the man had gone towards the gate, and the occupaut of the houso -fired two shots over the retreating man's head so as to hasten his departure. The fugitivo ran across the street, and tho housoholder went inside and reloaded his gun, after which he came out and fired two more shots. When the first shots wero fired tho man was about thirty yards away, and had increased the distanco by about forty yards when the second charge was sent after him. After tho final shot had been fired tho fugitivo exclaimed "Oh " and bolted down the road. The householder explained t'o the polico that ho intended to frighten tho man, as he thought he was about to break into tho houso, which is situated on tho outskirts of tho town. Tho owner of the house con, sidered that ho was quite within his rights in firing at the intruder, and had made no secret of tho adventure, but ho was no doubt surprised when he was called upon to attend before tho Stipendiary Magistrate on September 2 to answer a charge of discharging firearms with intont to disable a cortain per--PR*