STRUGGLE IN THE DARK

Southland Times, Issue 18756, 17 December 1919, Page 5

STRUGGLE IN THE DARK

HOTELKEEPER KILLED. TWO YOUNG MEN ARRESTED. (Per United Press Association). AUCKLAND, December 16. As a result of a disturbance which occurred in the Clarendon Hotel after midnight the licensee of the hotel was taken to the hospital at about 1 o’clock this morning suffering from concussion of the brain and a broken jaw, and two young men, Harold P. A. Stapleton (21 years) and Alexander Coppell (20 years) 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 indicates 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 I o’clock in the morning when the constable on duty outside the hotel was informed that there was trouble in the hotel 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 bedrooms late and that Stapleton after a time was awakened by hearing somebody in his room. He got into grips with the intruder, but was getting the worst of the encounter when he called on his mate for help. Coppell rushed to the rescue. The result was that the other man was knocked out and he was found to be the liceneeo of the hotel.