"URDEROUS ASSAULT."

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3597, 1 April 1924, Page 9

"URDEROUS ASSAULT."

the growth of rumour. An incident occurred in a house in one of Palmerston North’s streets during the week-end which put into circulation a rumour that has grown to such proportions that it is felt the time has arrived for a presentment of facts, to dispel the exaggerated reports. On Saturday night a widow, residing in Andrew Young Street with her four young children, spent the evening at the pictures. Upon returning home to her children, who had been put to bed, she was told by one of them, a boy of about ten years, that a man had been in the bedroom and had struck him. The latter could give no clear account of the affair, or a description of the supposed invader, taut in regard to the latter could describe only a "shadowy figure.” The boy had a slight cut over one eye, but was otherwise unhurt.

The police informed a pressman that they placed little credence in the story. Investigations had been made, but no man had been seen about the place at the time of the alleged affair, and the boy’s story is all there is to go on. The lad’s slight injury they attribute to his having fallen out of bed or to knocking his head against the wall, while’ the rest was the outcome of nightmare, or an hallucination.