DARING ESCAPE FROM NEW PLYMOUTH GAOL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 71, 18 March 1902, Page 2

DARING ESCAPE FROM NEW PLYMOUTH GAOL.

About half-pas'; four on Monday aftercoon, as the prisoners at the local gao were being brought in from work, two of their number, Thurston and McDonald, made a bolt for liberty. Both these men not long since escaped from Wanganui, but were recaptured and transferred to New Plymouth. Each of them ran in an opposite direction to the other, Thurston being quickly captured by Warder Hawkins, but McDonald managed to get a clearer start, and by having the other prisoners between himself and Warder Downrs gained an ail vantage. The last-named warder was on a lower level, and by the time he was able to fire his rifle tha escapee had a good s'.art, and apparently was uninjured by the bulle*. He made for the gully in the Carring-ton-road, being there lost sight of, and though a search was at once instituted, his hiding place was not discoveied when darkness fell. j The eseippd prisoner, Roderick McDonald, is a min about six feet high, fair hair and csniplexion, medium build, and bearing a long scar down his nose. He has only been in the colony for three years, and during that time has accumulittd a bad record. & e was undergoing sentences for housebreaking and gaol-bmikieg, and in all probability has received a few hints from Schreiner as to the lay of the country. T!ie search will be renewed to. day,