SHOT DEAD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 987, 5 March 1910, Page 5

SHOT DEAD.

BAILIFF AND HIS ASSAILANT.

A TRAGIC SCENE,

By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, March 4.

Pipitea Street, 'lhorndon, was the scene of a tragedy just afier six o'clock to-night, Christopher Dennis Smith, a draper's assistant. bAng shot dead by a bailiff, named Robert Corkhill. It is alleged that the deceased severely assaulted Corkhill, and two boys, who were startled eye witnesses, state that Corkhill was seen to get up off the ground aiter 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 of the tragedy was a married man, whose wife lived in Blenheim. He had been employed till recently ty Messrs Warnock and Adkin, drapers, of Lambton Quay, and boarded at 60 Jr/ipitea Sti-eet, the landlady being a Miss Smith. A few days ago Miss Smith gave up the place and went to Manakau. Another tenant was found for the house, and furniture, and an attempt was made to obtain poss ssion.Jbut it is alleged that Smith resisted and threatened violence. When the house agent and the house agent's representative called on Thursday, Smith and some other boarders ;ie said to have held the opinion hat their week was up on Friday, ana that they could not be coraptll<d to leave|before thai time. Therefore the agents instructed a private bailiff, Robert Corkhill, to lake charge of the houee. Yesterday afternoon Corkhill, who is sixty years of age, and well known m the city, went to the house just after six o'cloclTand encountered Smith, who objected to leave. Smith, a well built man of bewteen 35 and 40 years of age, is alleged to iiave turned Corkhill out of the house, and knocked him down on the concrete path in a narrow side entrance. Then the scuffle rapidly developed into tragedy, and Smith, with his coat off and sleeves tucked,up, watched the bailiff get upon his feet, and wichin a few seconds was staggering from the gate with a bullet wound in the chest. He died heforo he could get back into the house. Corkhill, when he got up, was seen holding a hand to his face, as if he had been injured by the fall, and he instantly whipped a small five-chambered revolver cut of his hip pocket and took aim with fatal effect. Everything occurred quietly, and the curious people who gathered seemed to scarcely realise that there had been a murder. Smith lay on the concrete footpath of the house unattended, his arms stretched out and life gone, while Corkhill walked up and down the street in an agitated manner, fingering the revolver in his pocket. "He seemed to be a man with a sense of having been treated unjustly," states an eye witness of this strange scene, "and as 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, being summoned by telephone. Corkhill meanwhile had tired of walking aimlessly backwards and forwards. He made for Molesworth Street, and turned round the corner towards the city, and the Central Police Station. Then a couple of onlookers seized him by the arms, and threw him to the ground, and a five chambered revolver of small pattern was taken from him, and found to hold four loaded cartridges and one which had been discharged. He was 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 by Dr Izard, who found that the bullet wound just below the heart had quickly proved fatal. Detective Cameron and Constable Collery removed the deceased to the morgue. There was juat a small punctured wound to show where the bullet entered, and there was very little external bleeding. The deceased, judging by the appearance of the body, was in the prime of life, and in good health. It is said that during the last few days he had been drinking. According to a fellow boarder he had served as a Seregant-Major in the last South African War.