THREATENED WITH AXE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 9, 12 January 1926, Page 5

THREATENED WITH AXE.

PUT COWS IN ORCHARD. BOUND OVER TO KEEP THE PEACE. Alleging that he had threatened her with an axe at Paremoremo on December 31, and that he was a positive menace, Martha Schmidt had Samuel Brown brought to the Police Court this morning, and asked the magistrate (Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M.) to bind Mm over to keep the peace. Before the case commenced Brown asked for an adjournment until Monday, when he would be concerned in another matter. t The request was refused. Mr. G. P. Finlay, for complainant, put Mrs. Schmidt in the box. She stated that on the date mentioned she went to a small beach property owned by her husband at Biverhead. On it were two houses, one which Brown occupied and one which she intended to occupy. Brown had been living there for some time as a tenant, but he had paid no ;rent. On December 31, witness alleged, she heard Brown using very bad language, during the course of which her name was mentioned. It went on for five or ten minutes. (Witness wrote a specimen of the language for the eyes of the magistrate.) She went to Brown and asked him what he meant by talking about her in such a manner, to which he replied, "Did you lend my boat to 'those' Maoris ?" Brown followed this up by declaring that "he would do all the damage he could to Schmidt," and commenced by letting the cows into the orchard, at the same time defying any woman or anyone else to put them out. Mrs. Schmidt, however, drove the animals from among the apples and stood with a stick at the gate, daring him to put them back. The cows were then put in the bails. Brown refused to milk them, and witness commenced to do so herself. But further trouble was brewing. The next stage, said witness, was when she saw Brown approaching with a chopper, with the intention of "branding that woman Schmidt." However, when he saw witness coming he dropped the axe. Next morning she heard defendant having an altercation with her boy, and when went out to intervene Brown held the axe over her. Witness said that Brown's children slept under her house on the night of December 31. They were blue in the face, and were terrified of their father. Witness brought them a mattress and blankets and fed them. On another night, witness alleged. Brown threatened people "over the way," and when she came out he said that he would "settle her." She would not go back to Eiverhead if Brown was there. She was so frightened of him that she had sat up all night. Brown at this stage again asked for an adjournment. He had come out of the hospital only yesterday, and had not hail time to prepare his defence. Harold Schmidt, chemist, husband of the previous witness, deposed that Brown had paid no rent and had done very little work. Witness had been asked by the Takapuna police to remove him from the property, as lie was a nuisance. "I want to see him off my farm, because I do not think he is normal," said witness. Brown, made a third request for an adjournment. He was ordered to keep the peace for 12 months, in his own surety of foO.