ENDS IN A FATALITY.

Northern Advocate, 17 December 1919, Page 2

ENDS IN A FATALITY.

LICENSEE KILLED.

AUCKLAND, This Day.

As a result of a disturbance which occurred in the Clarendon Hotel after midnight, last night the licensee of the hotel was taken to the hospital about 1 o 'clock this nioming suffering from concussion of the brain, a broken jaw, and two young men named Harold P. A. Stapleton (aged 21) and Alexander Coppell (aged 20), were placed under arrest, on a charge of assault. The licensee, whose name is Frank Brazier, subsequently died in the hospital and further developments are expected. The account given by the young men indicate that Brazier's injury, was the result of a. struggle in the dark in one of the rooms of the hotel. It was getting on towards one o'clock in the morning when the constable on duty outside the hotel was informed that there was trouble in the house and on going there he found Brazier lying unconscious in the passage with a wound in his head. In reply to his inquiries the young men stated that they had gone to their bedroom late and that Stapleton, after a time, was awakened by hearing somebody in his room. He got to grips with the intruder, but was getting the worst of the encounter when he called to his mate for help and Coppel rushed to the rescue. The result was that the other man was knocked out and was found to be the licensee of the hotel. — Press Assn.