MURDEROUS ASSAULT BY A FIJIAN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 49, 29 September 1880, Page 2

MURDEROUS ASSAULT BY A FIJIAN.

[Specially Telegraphed to Stab.]

[PEB UNITED PBESS ASSOCIATION."!

Axjckland, Tuesday night. Last night, at 10 o'clock, a Fijian attempted to mnrder with an axe two sons of Thomas Willcott, aged 11 and 14 years. Willcott lately arrived from Fiji, and the Fijian had been in his service ibr seven years. The .yonngest lad, Gibson Willmott, received a dangerous gash fotuf inches in length, extending from his temple to tbe crown of his head, and the other lad was struck a blow on the neck and face with the axe, but was -not dangerously injured. Another la 3, named Sanding, and a serva-it girl, attempted to stop the ruffian "from decamping. "When the alarm was given first, he $ureatened Sanding with the axe, and threw a brick at the head of the girl, which fortunately missed her, when he fled, retaining possession of the axe. The police started in pursuit, Sub-Inspector Pardy . taking charge of the mounted men, and 'scouring the district, while the Superintendent took charge of the men on foot, and surrounded the cemet ry, in which the Fijian was supposed to b.c. secreted. This surmise proved incorrect, as the information went to show that the- Friian was seen at 11 o'clock passing the Eden Vine Hotel, going away from town. This morning a milkman named Matthew Crawford, residing near Mount Albert, found the body- of a man lying on the road some distance from the Eden Vine hotel, with a clean cut on the- back of his skull, about an inch in width, which must have been instantaneously jtatal. The milkman reported the matter to the police, and. an investigation disclosed that the murdered man's name is Edward Race, who resided with hia'wife and family on the new. North road, near Morningside. It is surmised' that last night he and the Fijian mnst have encountered each other, and that the Fijian must have crept noiselessly behind him, and dealt th- fatal blow from behind. This morning the Fijian made his appearance in the Mount Albert district; and news has been received that, after felling a washerwoman near Merville's (manager for Brown and Campbell), and breaking her arm, the Fijian made -off, hotly pursued, and was eventually captured. The native is from Asi, New Hebrides, and belongs to one of the most savage races in the South Sea Tal«».Tifl n He asked people where he was stopped to buy him an axe yesterday. His excuse is that his head' was all in a whirl, and there is no doubt tbat he had been drinking. The boy who was injured has very little chance of recovery, as his brain is protruding. '