DARING BURGLARY AND ASSAULT.

New Zealander, Volume XXIV, Issue 2610, 10 March 1866, Page 3

DARING BURGLARY AND ASSAULT.

A most daring burglary was committed on Thursday morning, the perpetrators of which there is good reason to believe, are in custody. About three o'clock in the morning constable Morrison, while standing opposite the Union Lank, in Queen-street, henrd a whistle proceeding from near the Thistle Hotel, and thinking it might be another constable wanting his assistance, he went to the place, where he found a man standing without his boots and cap. On the constable asking him what he whistled in that way for, the man answered that he was whistling for a dog. The constable, supposing that the man had just come out of an adjoining lodging house, came down the street again ; and when opposite the ihop of Mr. Cotter, cabinet-maker, QueenStreet, the door was quickly opened, and someone called that there were robbers on the premises. Morrison immediately went round to the back, but could not see any one. Other two constables were got, and the place was thoroughly searched. It was found that a back window of Mr. Cotter's premises had been forced open, and that two men had got access. In a small apartment opening oil the room in which the robbers entered, Mr. Cotter's son slept, the rest of the family sleeping up-stairs. Young Mr. Cotter, being awakened by a noise, looked up, and saw a man standing close to his bed. He instantly jumped and laid hold of him, and in the struggle appeared likely to overcome the burglar, when Mr. (Jotter was struck by another man a heavy blow from a life-preserver, which knocked him down sensless. Those sleeping above were by this time awakened by the noise of the struggle, and Miss Cotter, looking out, saw a tall man running out of the yard. The front door was then opened, and the alarm given as we have stated above. On hearing the statement of Mr. Cotter, constable Morrison at once concluded that the man he had spoken to was one of the burglars, and he ran up the street to overtake him. He found him near the foot of Wakcfield-street, where he had just stopped to speak to a policeman. On going up to him, Morrison quietly entered into conversation with him, when he said he was looking out for a mate he had lost, whose name he said was GoldSpring ; and whom he described to the policeman as a short man, with a long coat. As this descriptian tallied precisely with that given by Mr. Cotter of the man he had struggled with, the constable at once arrested the man on the charge of burglary ; and on taking him down he was identified by Miss Cotter as the man whom she had seen running across the yard. On further search, a cap, a life-preserver, and two pair of boots were found on the premises. We may mention that the back of the jewellery shop of Mr. Uautrive runs

into the room into which the burglars trot access, and was only separated by a partition. Tt is evident that the burglars had been all over Mr. Cotter's premises before they were seen, as the partition was marked where it was to be cut. The man arrested was taken to the guard-rcom, and gave his name as William Ferry, a discharged soldier. From the description given of his companion by Ferry to the policeman before he knew he burglary had been discovered, a good clue was given to a further arrest, and in a short time GokLpring was arrested, and identified by Mr. Cotter as being the person he had struggled with. A soldier of the 14th Regiment, named Bryant Corcoran, was also arrested, and will be charged, along with the other two, at, the Folice Court this (Friday) morning. Ferry, who is supposed to have struck the blow which felled Mr. Cotter, has a large stain of blood on his clothes; and it is said that a person avers to having seen the life-preserver in the possession of Goldspring a short time since.— Southern Cross.