AUSTRALIAN.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1922, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN.

AOBIRAU&N AM* <:ABLK ASSOCIATION. YOUNG BUSHRANGER FALLS. .MELBOURNE, March 27} The youth John Maple, 16 years of age (who with Robert Banks, another 16-year-old youth, escaped from Castlemaine Reformatory Home, and who after Banks was captured, held many at bay with a gun at Nerim Junction in Gippsland) has been taken .Jt now transpires that the man who was -ehofby- Maple at Nerim Junction was a returned soldier named George Woolstencroft. The latter sighted Maple, when the hoy was taking cover behind a log and Woolstencroft rode at him. Swinging his rifle to the level, the l*>y fired a shot, shattering Woolstencroft’s rifle stock. Woolstencroft then attempted to draw a revolver, hut he received a bullet in the shoulder. He then turned to gallop to cover, but he was shot through the lung. In view of this, the police had ed to them army rifles, and they were ordered to shoot Maple on sight, a* he no longer was regarded as a misguided youth, but as a young desperado. To-day an armed party c-ame upon •him near Nerim Junction, and be fired twice. A fusilade was then fired at him.. He fell being shot between the eyes. He is not expected to live until lie reaches the hospital. Ranks,. Maple’s associate, states the latter told him that lie intended to parallel the worst exploits of the Australian bushrangers, and that he would not be taken alive.

STEAMER SERVICE. SYDNEY, March 28. The general steamship corporation which conducts a monthly cargo sbrvice between American Pacific Const and Australasian ports, intends to substitute for the present fleet four vessels belonging to the Transatlantic Company of Gothenburg. The steamers to be employed are the Svdic, Roten Boren, and Tolken, each upwards of eight hundred tons. BUTTER PRICES. MELBOURNE, March 28. Consequent upon the improved price of butter in the London market, the local price was increased by three half pence and is now Is 7d per pound. BRISBANE, March 28 Butter has increased from £149 4s to £1(53 4s per hundredweight wholesale, which represents ljd per pound.