BOY BUSHRANGER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18051, 28 March 1922, Page 5

BOY BUSHRANGER.

DESPERATE FIGHT MADE.

SHOT BY ARMED PARTY.

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Heed. 7.E p.m.) MELBOURNE. March 27.

In connection with the bushranging exploits of the two boys Robert Banks and John Maple, who escaped from reformatory homes in Castlemaine and Royal Park, it transpires than the man shot by Maple at Neerim Junction was a returned soldier named George Woolstencroft. The man sighted Maple taking cover behind a log and rode at him. The boy fired a shot that shattered the stock of Woolstencroft's rifle. Woolstencroft then attempted to draw his revolver, but received a bullet in the shoulder. As he turned to gallop to cover he was shot through the lung.

In view of this the police had issued to them army rifles and were ordered to shoot Maple on sight as he was no longer to bo regarded as a misguided youth but as a young desperado. To-day an armed party came upon him near Neerim Junction and he fired twice. A fusilade was then fired at him and he fell allot between the eyes. He is not expected to live until he reaches hospital. Banks states that Maple told him that he intended to parallel the worst exploits of Australian bushrangers and would not be taken alive.