WAIHI MINERS' QUARREL.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 215, 11 September 1929, Page 23

WAIHI MINERS' QUARREL.

_ e BLOOD AND KAIK, FOUND. ONE MAN FINED FOR ASSAULT. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WAIHI, Tuesday. Frederick Johnson Heath, a, miner, was charged in the Police Court to-day with assaulting John Percy Stone, a miner, at Waihi on August 24. Accused, who defended himself, pleaded not guilty. Stone said Heath accused him in the hotel of referring to him by an offensive name used during the strike, and he wanted to fight. Later, when he was going home, Heath approached him from behind and struck him on the mouth and head.. He became unconscious., and upon recovery some time later found himself covered with blood. The wound in his head had to be stitched. J. Johnson gave evidence as to the assault. Cross-examined, he said Heath cuffed Stone on the ear like a child. Constable Dalbeth said he inspected the scene of the alleged assault, and found hair and blood on a post. He had no doubt how Stone came by his injuries. Accused said Stone used offensive words in the bar of a hotel, referring to him and his mates. Witness told him to "cut that game out," as he was "absolutely fed up" with it. A further remark caused him to lose his temper, and he tried to get Stone out of the hotel with the object of settling the matter once for all, but a crowd interfered. Later he made another attempt to clear the matter up, but Stone made off for his life. Witness caught him up, got him by the shoulder and cuffed him on the ear and threatened to give him "a jolly good hiding" if he used the offensive word again. Stone tripped and fell into a wire fence. The magistrate, Mr. F. W. Platts, said Heath made a mistake in taking the law into his own hands, but probably he did not intend the punishment to be as serious as it turned out, owing to Stone falling. Accused was fined £4, one-half of which

is to go to pay Stone's medical expenses.