Stabbing Case in Fort-street.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1735, 6 September 1875, Page 2

Stabbing Case in Fort-street.

On Saturday, just before the Insurance Building's clock tolled, the midnight hour, a company of sailors and loafers turned out of an hotel in Fort-street, all the worse for what they had taken into their physical system. Words ran high, and terms not very complimentary were excbaneed between those who had previously been jolly good fellows in each others estimation. The storm, which commenced inside the hotel, subsequently subsided in the cool damp air of Fortstrent. The noise of the contending parties disturbed the whole neighbourhood, but neither the police nor the public took particular notice of the proceedings. It was the usual Saturday night's row the few lingering spectators said, and they passed on towards their respectivedomiciles. Presently, however, the noise increased, and voices, rough and sailor-like, stirred the drowsy air of night, and blows, hard and terrible, were heard audibly as flails upon a threshingfloor and the motley crowd were seen struggling and fighting a few yards from Mr Riordan's HoteJ, and a man was terribly cut acroßß the forehead with a sharp instrument, and another was wounded in the hindermost part of his person ; several heads were used as though they were of no more use than tnrnips, and battered accordingly. The row did not last long, but during its continuance, it was sharp and fierce. The row, mine hoEt informs us, did not commence in Fort-street, but in the less happy locality of West Queen-street;, where one man pummelled a companion's head against the wall to see whether he was a "regular brick," and the blood from the injured man's head made " his angry passions rise," and he followed him. and had revenge in the quiet locality of Fort-street. m There were no less than six midnight combats in different parts of the city on Saturday night, and in one of these the " boneless boy" had three of his front teeth knocked ont, but, as an old man said, the spirit and beer are too strong for human n a'u re. The man stabbed behind was a seaman called Steve, who has obtained some celebrity as a step-dancer. We could name a few of these midnight brawlers, other than sailors, who were concerned in some of these little games. One or two of them were arrested on Sunday night for drunkenness. They had better mend their ways.