A FAMILY VENDETTA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20330, 11 February 1928, Page 23

A FAMILY VENDETTA

FRACAS AT TOMAHAWK. MEN AND WOMEN COMBATANTS. At 11 p.m. on December 26, the members of two families met on a lonely stretch of the Tomahawk road. A quarrel swiftly developed from an argument, and within a few minutes of the meeting men and women were fighting. The details of the fracas are not available, but ooch parties considered themselves sufficiently aggrieved to inform the police, with the result that they appeared in the City Police Court yesterday morning before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M. The charge was one of fighting on the Tomahawk road. The defendants we.© Robert Johnston, Madeline Johnstoi, Robert Kerr, Maria Kerr, and Mignonette / Grindley —Sub-inspector Fahey reprv< sented the police, and Mr A. C. Hanlon appeared for the defendants Johnstm, Mrs Johnston, and Grindley. The fight had arisen out of a meeting on the road at 11 p.m. on December 26, said the sub-inspector. The Kerrs we~e on their way home to Tomahawk when they met the Johnstons in a car. The car" stopped, and Mrs Johnston asked where Mrs Kerr lived. Mrs Kerr -e----vealed her identity, whereupon Mrs Jonnson complained that Mrs Kerr’s daughter was staying out late ' ith her son. Mrs Kerr denied the accusation, and Mrs Jonnston made some remarks about the girl. The parties then began fighting, and she affair developed into a general fracas. The Kerrs were attacked by the Johnstons. “ Mrs Kerr received a rather bad black eye,” added the sub-inspector. Mr Hanlon said it was extraordinary that the police had been brought into the case at all, as there was no one about at the time, and the fight had taken place at nearly midnight on the deserted road at Tomahawk. The Sub-inspector; It is a public hignway. Counsel: I know that, hut only the defendants were concerned. He added that the offence was a most venial one. It was admitted by all parties that the defendant Grindley had taken no part in the fighting save making an attempt to pull someone away from one of the other women. The Magistrate: What was the trouble about I Counsel: Evidently the hoy in question, who is 14 years of age, had been staying out too late with the srirl. The charge against the defendant Grindley was dismissed. The others were con victed, and each of the males was fined !os. ________