KNOCKED SENSELESS BY ROUGHS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2703, 24 February 1916, Page 6

KNOCKED SENSELESS BY ROUGHS

. A SAVAGE i ASSAULT. A savage and brutal assault was committed 011 Holiday night on Mr. ' Herbert G. Smith, general manager of i ■ tho Phoenix Assurance Company, and . son of Mr. Jolin Smith, one of Wellington's best-known jrublic men.. Sir. H. G. t Smith resides in Bidwell- Street— that streets which- runs from the old Grosvenor Hotel at the top. of Taranaki 1 Street to tlife baqlCof the Js'airn Street Reserve. Mr. • Smith was proceeding' home via the reserve, wlien he was sud- ; derily confronted by two men, who, m : the' manner of the footpads of old. de- . manded his purse. Sir. Smith declined to deliver up his valuables, whereupon he - was set upon by the- two men, who knocked him down and. kicked him into [ a state of insensibility, and then rolled : him down a bank, where he would be !■ out, of sight of any passers-by 4,.;, ; v Mr. Smith lay in the gully in a semi- [ conscious condition until 4 o'clock the next morning, when with some difficulty he was able to"' struggle to his feet and [• renke his way to his residence, some three hundred yards away across the ' reserve. Medical aid was at 'once summoned, and Mr. Smith was found to ho suffering from, very severe injuries. • ' Strange t0,,, say, Mr. Smith's watch ■ and chain.,-"wallet,, fountain pen,.- and other articles of value were untouched by the footpads, who, having dealt with their victim, must have taken fright or ; heard other people coming.