SHOT BY MISTAKE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2587, 28 November 1893, Page 4

SHOT BY MISTAKE.

A terrible mistake, costing a worthy suburban resident his life, occurred at Moonee Bonds, near Melbourne, on a Sunday evening recently, when Mr Caleb Amos Ken nett, auctioneer (of Uttershank, Eaglestone and Mann, stock and station agents), was shot by Mr Wm. U. Main, produce merchant, who took him for a robber. They were near neighbors, though not acquainted, except through tboir wives, who sometimes met.

It seems that the Mains, who live in Taylor street, have for some time been troubled by finding footprints in the garden, and believed them to have been made by a thief, and the servant girl also declared she had seen men about the backyard. They informed the police, who made enquiries, but could obtain no adequate data to proceed upon. Mrs Main mentioned her anxiety to Mrs Kennett, who jestingly said, “Your husband is a lieutenant of militia, and, therefore, has arms, and will be able to protect you from any real danger.” The. remark, when repeated to Mr Main, put the thought of using his rifle into hia head.. His marriage was recent, and he thought the burglars were after the wedding presents. On Sunday evening, having sent his wife and sister-in-law to church, ho lay iu wait, thinking it a likely time to be visited. The servant came in at half-past eight, reporting hysterically that a robber was in the backyard. Mr Main loaded his Martini-Henry rifle and went out to search, pressing a passw-by into the service. No one was found. Mr Main seems to have continued the watch by himself, and again seeing some one about hurried down the right-of-way into the street, where he shot the fiyst person he met. This was Mr Kennett, who expired before medical assistance arrived. Mr ! Kennett had just escorted his wife to the house of her father, next, door to Main’s, and as soon as Mrs Kennett entered he turned to go down the street to post some letters, Almost immediately afterwards the shot fired, Mr? Keunet re collecting some" M ug she wished to tel) her husband, went to the uo.V called DU-t, | “Are you there?” The a-jSWvT j came was a flash and report not many yards away. Not supposing it concerned her husband, who had disappeared, she went back into the house, but when she heard that a man had been shot, she went to the spot and found her husband lying on the ground in a dying state. Mr Kennett had been shot in the abdomen, and died quickly. Mrs Kennett stated at the inquest on Tuesday that as they passed Main’s right-of-way she saw a man standing alongside the fence, and said to her husband, “ That looks a suspicious place for a man to be in.” Two or three minutes later they parted at her father’s door. Margaret Clifford, Mr Main’s servant, states that as she was closing a back window she noticed a man creeping along the house near the pantry. She told Mr Main, who took his rifle and went through the front demand front gate, and thence round into the lane. Directly afterwards Mr Main went into the lane again and then witness hoard a shot. She had see i men about the place previously. On Friday a man rushed out of the stable, and on Saturday there was a man in the woodshed. Mr Kennett was thirty years of age, and the I father of several children. The most j likely theory about the occurrence is that ; Mr Kennett, seeing a suspicious man i about Main’s place, went towards his door to toll him of it, and Main, coming up

with the rifle in his hand, concluded he was the robber. Main was taken into custody by the police.