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New Zealand Mail, Issue 361, 11 January 1879, Page 5

At Chicago lately an exhibition was given of the Copeland Fire Escape. It consists of an endless wire-rope ladder attached to a carriage running on a track attached to the building under the cornice, and can be moved to any window instantly. A fireman ascended the ladder to the fourth storey, and attached a person to the endless rope with a strap and clamp, and while he was being lowered the escape was moved to another window, about fifteen feet, and another was put on and lowered to the ground, all being done in one minute thirty seconds. This seems to be a very practical escape, and meets with general approval, especially among the firemen. The Wailcato Times says :—Rather an amusing incident, which, however, may prove serious to one of the parties concerned, occurred at Alexandra on Friday last. Mr. James Allen was trying a repeater rifle on his farm, the range being, he says, on his own ground. A man named Hugh Kelly, employed on Mr. Tisdall’s farm on the opposite side of the road, imagined he was in his own country, and being made the victim of an agrarian outrage. Seeing George Appleyard riding along the road he at once went and swore an information against him, and Appleyard was arrested. Fortunately for him he was accompanied by another person on foot, whom Kelly did not see, and whose evidence with Mr. Allen’s, at once procured his acquittal of the charge.