ARMED BUSHRANGER.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1918, Page 7

ARMED BUSHRANGER.

MAIL COAOH 'HELD UP. Sydney, June 2DArmed with a revolver, and wearing a mask, a mounted bushranger stuck up the Pleasant Hills mail coach this morning, and when the driver, Fred Klemke, displaying splendid courage, refused to pull up, tlio husfliranger fired five shotß after" him, and several of'them went unpleasantly and dangerously close. The ■first went wide of the mark, but the second struck the iron of one of the splashboards and bent the ironwork The third went through the tack of tho seat within a few inches of the driver. Meanwhile Klemke, who had Ms horses under the whip, had worked them into a mad gallop, and on the rough road the coach rocked dangerously. A fourth 'bullet whistled through the air, and the fifth tore a hole through the maildriver's lint. By this time Klemke had secured a good lead, and the bushranger,, realising the futility of maintaining the chase, turned off" into the . bush and galloped away. When Klemke arrived at Osborne, where he usually changes horses, lie told the story of the stieking-up. Mounted troopers'were turned out. without delay. They wont out in all directions, but the robber had secured such a good start as to render an early arrest extremely unlikely.

The highwayman is known as the "Red Bushranger" from the.fact that 'lift has ivd whiskers. He first made his appearance a couple of months ago, avid is generally believed to be a German who has escaped from captivity. He makes a ulav of great ferociousness, and is said to threaten to murder any policeman who comes within range, but recorded crime so far is petty theft. He emerges from mountain and forest fastness at intervals to raid some lonely hut or outlying house, and carries off food and small articles likely to be useful to Ivhu.