A DESPERATE FIGHT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 21 June 1928, Page 9

A DESPERATE FIGHT.

CONSTABLE AND MADMAN. EXCITING INCIDENT AT HASTINGS. (By Telegraph—Press Association., NAPIER, June 20. Exciting happenings involving a demented Maori, a loaded revolver and extremely courageous behaviour _by Con st ab le- Craigie, startled the. neighhour hood of Warren Street, Hastings, between midnight and 1 o’clock this morning. The Maori, ’(a,ter identified a,s an escaped patient from Porirua, Mental Hospital, wa,s one of the passengers; in a service car which arrived in Hastings from the south shortly after midnight. On the way—the car h!ad, -a breakdown at Te Ante, and the native got into a dispute with some- of the other passengers, and in the course of the argument produced a revolver of somewhat antique pattern. He was, however, induced to. put this weapon away -and on reaching Hastings the driver at once notified the police of the occurrence. Constable Craigie accompanied the driver to Warren Streat, where h'i-s unwelcome passenger had. alighted, and fo-r awhile the two conducted- a search of the thoroughfare, but without result. The service driver then left, and the cnrffitab-le continued his search unaided. He was parsing under a verandah when the man for whom he was searching dropped off the roof on to his shoulders. The constable immediately grappled with Iris attacker. In the scrambling, the native, who was a powerfully-built man, lost hits' grip on his revolver, during the struggle for the possession of which; two shots were discharged. The constable managed to get his foot on it. The overpowering of his opponent, who had strength and cunning, was a difficult matter, _ and it wa-s only after some fifteen minutes of struggling that the constable wa,s able to get him sufficiently under control to allow him to use one hand to extract his 'whist 1 © and blow it, bringing several residents, from the immediate neighbouiibod'd to Iris aid. With their help the Maori, who was still full of fight, was handcuffed and conveyed to the police .starton.

It is understood that the Maori was under the delusion that lit- had been en gaged! by the Government to search fo-r a dangerous criminal who recently escaped from Mount Eden gaol.