A DUNEDIN TRAGEDY.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 273, 23 May 1907, Page 4

A DUNEDIN TRAGEDY.

KILLED BY A CHINAMAN. [PBB PBBBB ASSOCIATION.] Dunedin, May 22. A tragedy took place in Seacliff Asylum when Joseph Rhodda, a miner, who has been a patient since 1904, was in a boiler-house working there with Ah Eec, a Chinaman, and another patient named Roberts. Provost, an attendant, was close at hand, outside the boiler-house, and suddenly he heard a noise, and Roberts rushed out and informed him that Ah Kee had knocked down Rhodda with an axe while the latter was in the act of striking him (the Chinaman) with a shovel. When the attendant arrived on the scene he found Ah Kee with an axe in his hand, and deceased lying in a pool of blood. Ah Kee was apparently about to strike him again, when Provost took the axe from him; Roberts was the only man who witnessed the affair, and he was unable to give any evidence at the inquest, his mind having been a blank since the affair. Dr. King operated on Rhodda and removed a piece of skull, which had been forced into the brain. For a time the patient improved, but gradually grew duller and died- Dr. King's evidence showed that deceased frequently broke out in fits of temper, and from what had been stated, he was of the opinion that the story told by Roberts was correct. The jury returned a verdict "That death was due from fracture of the skull caused by a blow from an axe."