BULL ON A LONDON ROOT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 233, 30 March 1912, Page 10

BULL ON A LONDON ROOT.

CLIMBS OS TviP OF MODEL DWELLINGS. For three hours a young bull furnisher! Islington with a succession of thrills. It was being driven to the Cattle Market, but broke away, dashing up the stairs of a block of model dwellings on to the roof, and resisting all efforts at capture, was finally shot. The astonishing thing is that the animal, weighing nearly three-quarters of a ton, managed to climb the steps. There are fifty-seven of them, and the journey is a tortuous one, for great sharp turns are encountered. Fortunately, the staircase was empty at the time. The children had just been packed off to school; had it been holiday time, there would certainly have been a number of young innocents in the path of the maddened bullock. There are. five staircases to the dwellings, which are five stories high and have four doors leading to five flat roofs. These roofs are separated by party walls, the first dividing wall being 3y 2 ft high, the second nearly 6ft, and the third 2ft, and the fourth 3ft. The total length of the five roofs is 70yds. Ropes were procured, with which fruitless attempts were made at lassooing. The drovers thought they were fairly safe by being on the higher side of the tallest division of the roof, but, to their astonishment, the bullock jumped this, and they were forced to fly for refuge behind chimney stacks, and then to the fire exits on the roof. In its leap the bullock dislodged two rows of bricks on the wall, and in its wild career also demolished a chimney stack and other parts of the brickwork. The police-inspector obtained a service rifle, and, with the consent of the owner of the bull, got on to the roof in order to shoot it. He fired one shot, which, owing to the animal's tough hide, did not take immediate effect, and the bullock charged him. With great presence of mind, the inspector immediately fired another shot, which brought the animal down, and, to make quite sure, the inspector fired once more at its head.