EXCITING FOX CHASE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1930, Page 7

EXCITING FOX CHASE

COMMOTION AT HOSPITAL

RAID ON POULTRY YARD

MARAUDER SHOT WITH GUN

For nil hour unci a half recently members of the stuff of the War Memorial Hosri lul, Wavorley and noarh.v residents, says a Sydney newspaper, engaged in an exciting eliase after a fox in the hospital poultry yard.

During the previous night some of the inmates and staff of the hospital were awakened by a. commotion in lhe yard. Fowls were cackling and many piercing cries- rent the air When an examination was made at dayhre'ik it was found that IS fowls were missing and the yard was strewn with ieaiue.s.

The disappearance of the poultry was a mystery until the morning, when some of the staff saw a large fox slyly moving about the hospital grounds. Arrangements were immediately made to organise a party to run him down. Fears were entertain-., ed for the safety of the peacocks and other -birds kept at the hospital. More than a dozen ’.people, including several .nurses, volunteered to form a search party. One member of the party was armed with a shotgun, and took several hunting dogs with him.

Members of the hunting party were puzzled to find a collar on the fox’s neck. It was not known how the animal came to be in the hospital grounds. The mystery deepened when it was considered that the hospital, though" situated in large, dense grounds, was surrounded by houses for somei distance.