The Fairburn Runaways.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 22, 8 January 1907, Page 7

The Fairburn Runaways.

TO THE EDITOR. Dear Sir,—-Your Fair bum correspondent states in the last issue of your pftfiAr tKat Mr. Prosscr’is horses, which bolted from the Omni Dairy Factor}* while attached to a waggonette, were stopped by the bullockdrivers. As an eye witness of what really occurred, I would like to state that this is a mistake. The real facts are as follows : Mr. J. A. Maria, who was working at his brother’s new cottage, chanced Ito see the team galloping up the road while they were yet some distance away. He promptly seized a small kauri batten and ran with all speed to the road, a distance lof about ten chains, and hastily scrambling through a barbed wire fence succeeded in gaining the centre of the road ahead of the runaways. / Mr. Maria,, made frantic efforts, by brandishing the stick he carried and shouting out, to check their speed, but without any effect, till it appeared as if they would go right over him. Mr. Maria manfully stood liis ground, and striking one of them on the head with the batten—which appeared to check its speed slightly—he seized the rein, and after being dragged along the road some twenty or thirty yards, succeeded in bringing them to a stand-still, no damage being done to anything. Mr. Maria’s action was# vejjy plucky one tfnd was done at some considerable personal risk, for, had the driving rein broken, there Was ever}* prospect that he would have been ran over. I am given to understand that this is notsthptupt time Mr. Maria has stopped aTimaway team.—Yours faithfully. A. D. LAMBLY.