A FATAL PISTOL SHOT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 331, 5 March 1910, Page 4

A FATAL PISTOL SHOT

YOUXC, MAN KITTED BY A BAILIFF. BL'LLET JUST BELOW THE HEART. ARREST OF THE ASSAILANT. By Telegraph.—Press- Association. Wellington. Last Night. Pipitea street, Thornuon, was the. scene of a tragedy just after six o'clock to-night, Christopher Dennis Smith, it draper's assistant, being shot dead by a bailiff named Robert Corkhill. It is alleged that the deceased severe. ly assaulted Corkhill. and two boys who were startled eye-witnesses state that Corkhill was seen to get up off the ' ground after a scuffle with Smith and then to take aim, with the result that Smith fell dead, shot through the heart, The murderer is in custody. - THE VICTIM. The victim of the" tragedy was & married man. whose wife lived at Blenheim. He had been employed until recently by Messrs Warnoek and Adkin, drapers, of Lambton Quay, and boarded at fin, Pipitea street, the landlady being Miss Smith. A few days ago Miss Smith gave up the place and went toJlanakau. Another tenant was found for the house mid furniture and an attempt was made to take possession, but it is alleged that Smith resisted and THREATENED VIOLENCE when the house agent's representativecalled on Thursday. Smith and some other hoarders are said to have held the opinion that their week was up on Friday, and they could not be compelled to leave before, that time. Therefore the agents instructed a private bailiff, Robert Corkhill, to take charge of the house yesterday afternoon. Corkhill is sixty years of agei'and well.known in the city. He went to the house just after six o'clock and encountered Smith, who'objected to leave. Smith, a wellbuilt man of between 35 and 40 year* of age, is alleged to have turned Corkhill out of the house, and knocked him down on the concrete footpath in a narrow side entrance. Then the scuffl* rapidly DEVELOPED INTO A TRAGEDY. Smith, with his coat off, and sleevestucked tip, watched the bailiff get upon his feet, and within a few seconds he was staggering from the gate with a bullet wound in the chest. He died before he could get back into the house. Corkhill, when he got up, was seen holding a hand to his face a* if he had been injured by the fall, and then he instantly whipped a. small five-chamber-ed revolver out of his hip-pocket and took aim, with iafci? effect. Everything occurred "quietly, and curious people who gathered seemed to scarcely rea'ise that there 3ad ficen a murder. Smith lay on the concrete foo.tpn.tli of the house unattended, his arms stretched out, and life gone, white Corkhill walked up and down the street in an agitated manner, fingering the revolver in his pocket. "He seemed to be n man with a sense of having been treated unjustly," states an eye-witness of this strange scene, "and was more afraid of what the crowd might do than anything else." The police were present within a few minutes, Inspector Ellison, who lives not far away, having been summoned by telephone. Corkhill, meanwhile, had tired of walking aimlessly (backwards and forwards, lie made for Molesworth street, and turned round the corner towards the city and the Central Police tSation. ' AtIREST BY CIVILIANS. Then a couple of onlookers seized him by the arms, and threw him to tho , ground. A five-chambered revolver of a small pattern was taken from him, and found" to houl four loaded cartridges and one which had licen discharged. He was ttun taken unresistingly to the police station mumbling something incoherent about the house in Pipitea street', and he told the police that Smith knocked him down. , The body was examined bv Dr. Izard, who found that the bullet wound just below the heart had quickly proved fatal. Detective Cameron and Constable Callery removed the deceased to th? morcur. There was just a .small punctureS wound to show where the bullet entered. an<7 there was very little external bleeding. The 'leceasert, Judging by *be nppcai 1 - ance of the bo'ly. was in the prime of life arid in good health. It is said that during the last few days he had been drinking. According to a Yellow boarder he had served a sergeant-major in the last South African war.