SECRET FEUD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 274, 19 November 1927, Page 23

SECRET FEUD.

MIDNIGHT DRAMA

THREE MEN "OUT FOR BLOOD."

A secret feud; a midnight visit to a lonely farm by three men; a struggle outside the farm; and the discharge of a shotgun which lodged 33 pellets in the bodies of the three men. These were the most dramatic points of a strange story told to a special sitting of Westbury magistrates recently. The actors in the drama were: Albert Slack (24), the farmer, charged with shooting with intent to do grievous bodily harm; Donald B. H. Coatee, tea and rubber planter, of Drayton Gardens, S.W.; Reginald S. Daly, wholesale tea merchant, of Summer Place, S.W.; A. Gordon Cole, military 6tudent, of Sandbanks, Dorset. All were summoned for assault by Slack.

After a long hearing the Bench dismissed the case against Slack, and bound Coates over for 12 months in his own recognisances of £100. Mr. Tucker, prosecuting, said Slack lived with his parents at New Farm, Bratton. At midnight on September 3 came a knock at the front door, and Slack, going down in dressing gown and slippers, found two men asking for petrol. He gave them some, and he he was returning to the house one of the men struck him with a whip. Slack seized the whip, and then the two other men set on him. The fight seemed to have ended in a complete victory for the farmer. Slack then fetched a gun and fired both barrels at the car in which the three men were retreating. Thirtythree. pellets were later found in the men's bodies.

When Coates was in the witness box he was subjected to searching cross- examination by Mr. Tucker.

Mr. Tucker: t You have refused to give any statement to the police in this case? Yes.

So far as you are concerned, you would just as soon not be here to-day—Yes.

You had come down to this isolated farm late at night with your two friends to give Slack a good hiding?—l wished to have a fair fight with him.

A Magistrate: Three of you wanted to take on one man?— No.

Mr. Tucker: You had frequently challenged and threatened Slack in the past? Yes.

You had written to him from Ceylon saying what would happen when you got back?— Yes.

I don't want to go into the cause, but you intended to take matters into your own hands?— Yes.

And you brought a dog-whip for the purpose?— Not for the purpose. It was in the car:

Coates said he struck Slack several times with the whip, which Slack took from him and used upon him. They both struggled on the ground, and Slack tried to gouge witness' eye out with his thumb, whereupon he shouted to Cole, who pulled Slack away. Continuing his story, Coates said Daly asked: "Have you got a gun, Slack?" and he replied, "You bet your life, and I mean to use it," and rushed into the house.

A policeman pave evidence of a statement made by Slack. This said tha,t he got the gun simply with the intention of scaring them away. The motor car was about 75 yards away when he fired. He knew Coates had revolvers and carried them about, and he took up his gun to protect himself.

After retiring the magistrates decided there was no case against Slack, and dismissed the charge. Mr. Tucker then asked to be allowed to _ withdraw summonses for assault against Cole and Daly; Coates, he understood, would plead guilty, and he suggested he be bound over.

This the Bench agreed to, having heard Mr. E. Wethered, for Coates, say that nothing more would be heard of the quarrel between the two men.»