FARMER GUILTY OF ASSAULT

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24867, 6 May 1946, Page 3

FARMER GUILTY OF ASSAULT

THREATS TO SURVEY PARTY

JURY’S FINDING IN SUPREME COURT (P.A.). _ DUNEDIN. May 4.

In the Supreme Court, James Murray, 74, a farmer, of Kaka Point, was found guilty on three charges of assault, and on a charge of sending a threatening letter. He was acquitted on an alternative assault charge and also on a charge of assaulting a constable in the execution of his duty by kicking him. Togo James Murray, aged 42, son of James Murray, was acquitted on two charges of assisting his father in the commission of the assmilts. Mr Justice Kennedy remanded James Murray for sentence until Thursday. The charges arose from an incident at Kaka Point on February 11, when a party of surveyors visited James Murray’s property. The party was accompanied by a constable, and it was stated in evidence that its members left the property because of James Murray’s repeated threats to shoot the constable and to shoot anyone who drove a survey peg into his property. Murray, sen., had previously sent a letter to the clerk of the Clutba County Council, threatening to "make it another West Coast tragedy” if the council persisted in its course of action concerning a road deviation through his property.