BRAWL IN NELSON STREET.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 291, 6 December 1920, Page 4

BRAWL IN NELSON STREET.

HINT OF " PUSH " ELEMENT. YOUXG MEN" IMPRISONED. Cries of 'police!" resulted in several constables and others collected at the junction of Ilobson and Nelson Streets, about eleven o'clock on Saturday night, and after some sorting out two young men, Lanae Murdoch (25) and Ivan Murdoch (22) were arrested on a charge of having assaulted another young man, Sidney Hague, who was taken to the hospital to have some stitches put in a wound on the top of his head. Another young man, Nathan Campbell, was summoned also to attend court on a charge of assault, and the two Murdochs and Campbell came before Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., this morning, on that charge. Hague, who bad his head swathed in bandages, declared that he had seen a voting lady home after having been at the Opera House, and was going , to his lodgings in Nelson Street, when the three incused accosted him, and set upon him. He declared that he saw Lance Murdoch pull a bottle from a pocket, and that he must have been hit with it, for he was suddenly dazed by a blow. He was knocked about badly before he was let go, and made his way to his lodgings He stated that Lance Murdoch and he had had an argument before that over Murdoch leaving a room they were shar ing, without paying«his rent. On the other hand, the Murdochs declared that Hague was asked by Lance Murdoch lor money he owed him, and he drew a bottle and hit Lance Murdoch with it, whereupon Ivan Campbell took a hand and pushed Hague down on the street. Lance Murdoch showed a black eye, which he said was the result of the blow with the bottle. Hague (recalled) denied that he owed money to Lance Murdoch, and that he had a bottle. His Worship remarked that it looked as if something of the Australian "push -, element were growing up here. He did not believe the version given by the accused, and in cases of brutal and unprovoked assault he would not inflictfines. Campbell did not seem, from the evidence, to have taken part in the assault, and the charge against him would be dismissed. The two Murdochs would be sentenced to fourteen days' imprisonment.