THE STABBING AFFRAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 94, 30 April 1901, Page 1

THE STABBING AFFRAY.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) Napier, last night.

Further details of the stabbing and shooting affair show that Smith, who is an old seafaring man of foreign extraction, is a man of very violent and jealous disposition, and had been living on bad terms with his wife for some time past; so much so that the latter had applied for a separation order. This Smith resented, and, finding his wife had gone to town on Saturday morning, became very violent, and when his wife returned home she was met by tier husband near the house, and angry words were exchanged, which ended in Smith attacking his wife. A bystander mimed Hulme saw the man strike his wife five or six times on the chest, and

hoard -Mrs Smith call out: “Ho has stabbedrme,” and then she ran in the direction of the Shakespeare Hotel. Smith also ran away, with Hulme after him, but Smith reached his house first, and went inside, coming out again a few minutes afterwards licking” the bloodstained knife. Hulme then telephoned for the police and a medical man. When the latter arrived, it \yas found that, though Mrs Smith had been stabbed near a vital part, her injuries were not dangerous, On the arrival of the police, Smith was found to be standing in the doorway of his house with a knife and revolver threatening to do for anyone who attempted to capture him. Constable Oliphant, however, went round the back of the house, while Inspector O’Brien and Constable Skinner engaged the man’s attention in- the front. Oliphant effected an cntrauce at the back by bursting in the kitchen door, and Smith, hearing the noise, and realising that he was trapped, rushed into one of the front rooms, and the police heard two shots fired in quick succession, and on entering the room they found Smith lying on the floor. He had first tried to stab huusolf, and then discharged two of the revolvers, each of which had been loaded in six chambers. The last shot wounded him behind the car. Smith was ordered to the hospital, where he still lies quite conscious, and apparently in no serious danger. There are three children, two of whom were with Mrs Smith at the time of the assault, and w'ho unavailingly endeavored to pull their mother away from Smith when the latter was beating her, Smith will appear at the Polico Court in a few days.