A BRUTAL ASSAULT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14895, 22 January 1912, Page 7

A BRUTAL ASSAULT.

BAFFLED ROBBER'S OUTRAGE. A WOMAN MALTREATED. [BY TELEGRAPH.— ASSOCIATION.] Kimbolton, Saturday. -A dastardly outrage was committed at j the post offce at Kiwitea, 12 miles from Feilding, at an early hour yesterday morn- ' ' ing. , I ! '' About one o'clock Mrs- Kernahan, the postmistress, who was sleeping with her 1 t daughter, a 14-year-old girl, was awakened by a man who had opened the window. The man demanded the keys of the safe. The postmistress " refused, and started aereaming, while the girl quickly slipped out and ran across the road to arouse the neighbours. Before help arrived the man had dragged Mrs. Kernahan through the window and brutally assaulted her ' with a heavy piece of wood or an iron bar. ; Neighbours were quickly on the scene, but the man had completely disappeared. The woman was found lying unconscious and bleeding. She was taken to Feilding, where the medical examination showed tan arm broken, apparently, in shielding (her head, while the head was much • bruised. She is now in a private hospital, seriously, though it is thought not dangerously, injured. . . Sergeant Bowden and Detective Quirke '" 'proceeded to Kiwitea, but though the ' whole district has been scoured, no trace ■' of the man- has m far been discovered. "■V11... . .