A LYTTELTON SENSATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9043, 9 March 1908, Page 4

A LYTTELTON SENSATION.

A MAN MORTALLY WOUNDED. ASSAILANT ARRESTED. BY TELEGRAPH —PEKSS ASSOCIATION LYTTELTON, March 8. A great sensation was caused in Lyttelton at about a quarter to five on Saturday afternoon, when *h>ee revolver shots were heard in Oxford Street. It turned out that a man, named Alexander James Muir, had been shot and wounded.

The origin of the affair was a quarrel between Muir and a rnan named Frederick Hall some months On that occasion Hall affronted Muir and broke his jaw, and for doing so received three months imprisonment. Hall had not been long out of gaol, and according to Muir he had met Hall repeatedly, but had not spoken to him. On Staurday afternoon Muir was standing on the from door step of Clark's boarding-house in Oxford Street, when Hall came along and said, "You think you are going to get out of this,' but you are not." He then drew a revolver and fired three shots at Muir, two of them taking effect. Hall then ran away and hid himself in a right-of-way off Norwich Quay. Constables Moriarty and Wiison gave chase, and as Constable Moriarty approched him, Hall pulled the trigger of his 1 revolver twice in succession, but the weapon missed fire. He was then arrested and taken to the lock-up. Muir was taken into Clarke's boarding-house and attended to by a doctor, who states that he is mortally wounded, and his depositions were taken. Muir and Hall were wharf lumpers, and there bad been enmity between them ever since the quarrel referred to occurred.

Hall came out of gaol in January last, and although the men met almost daily at Clark's boarding-house for meals, they never spoke to each other. Muir used to live there, and Hall' went there for meals only. Muir was attended by both Drs Newell and Upham, and the latter states that he had two bullet wounds in the body. One bullet entered above the liver, and the Gther, which had been evidently fired from behind, lodged in the back, tearing the left lung. Latest advices report the victim to be in a state of collapse, and his recovery is considered hopeless.