YOUTHFUL OUTLAWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18514, 27 March 1922, Page 5

YOUTHFUL OUTLAWS

ESCAPEES FROM REFORMATORIES. < DESPERATE FIGHT IN THE BUSH. FORTY POLICE HELD AT BAY. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, March 26. (Received March 26, at 5.5 p.m.) Two boys, named Robert Banks and John Maple, each 16 years of age, escaped from the reformatory homes in Castlemaine and Royal Park. They broke into a store at Neerim South, in Gippeland, and stole rifles, ammunition, and goods worth £IOOO. They then appeared before a farmer’s house in the same district early in the morning and fired 12 shots, the farmer’s daughter narrowly escaping being shot. The police followed the boys, who took to the bush. During the chase there a constable received a bullet through his hat. Police blacktrackers and armed volunteer parties joined in the search. Banks was captured, but Maple escaped in the thick bush, where, although surrounded, he is making a determined stand against 40 police and practically every armed man in the district. While attempting to rush Maple’s position, a volunteer searcher was shot and fell from his horse, but was only slightly wounded.