ASSAULT AND ROBBERY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 22, 9 January 1935, Page 4

ASSAULT AND ROBBERY

Farm Employee’s Loss

AUCKLAND, Jan. 7. Detectives are investigating a complaint by a young farm employee that he was assaulted and robbed of £9 by three men after a motor drive from Newmarket to Penrose late on Saturday night. The victim, Mr William Holland, aged 26, is employed at the farm of Sir Clutha Mackenzie at Manurewa. Three similar cases of assault and robbery have been reported to the police recently.

Mr Holland said he met three men in a hotel in the city on Saturday night, and they all went to a dance at Newmarket. About 11 p.m. he decided io leave, as he had to catch a train to Manurewa, but the men insisted that they should take him home in a motorcar. The party entered the car, Mr Holland occupying the front seat, with one of the other men on each side of him and the third in the back scat. After driving about the city for a short while, the Great South Road was followed, but at Penrose the car turned off the main route and entered Wall Road. Mr Holland called the driver’s attention to the mistake, and the car was stopped. It was at this stage that Mr Holland was sruck unconscious by a blow on the back of the head. When ho recovered, over an hour later, he found himself lying on the grass. He made his way to a taxi stand at the intersection of the Great South Road and Green Lane, and was driven to Manurewa. Although the men had robbed him of his wallet, they had a JO/- note in another pocket. At the request of Mr Holland, the driver of the taxicab reported the mat ter to tho police-