FIGHT WITH MAD MAORI

Taranaki Daily News, 21 June 1928, Page 8

FIGHT WITH MAD MAORI

ESCAPEE FROM ASYLUM a CONSTABLE’S COURAGEOUS WORK, HASTINGS STREET SENSATION. ARMED MAN'S DESPERATE ACTS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Napier, Last Night. Exciting happenings involving an unfortunate demented Maori, a loaded revolver and extremely courageous behaviour by Constable Craigic startled the neighbourhood of Warren Street, Hastings, between midnight and one o’clock this mornipg. The Maori was later identified as an escaped patient from the Porirua Mental Hospital. Ho was one of the passengers in a serivce car that arrived in Hastings from the south shortly after midnight. On the way the ear had a breakdown at Te Aute, and the native got into a dispute with some of the other passengers. In the course of the argument he produced a revolver of somewhat antique pattern. He was, however, induced to put the weapon away and, on reaching Hastings, the driver at once notified the police of the occurrence. Constable Craigie accompanied the driver to Warren Street, where his unwelcome passenger had alighted, and for a while the two conducted a search of the thoroughfare without result. The service driver then left and the constable continued the search unaided. He was passing under a verandah when, the man for whom he was searching dropped off the roof on to his shoulders. The constable was temporarily nonplussed by the unexpected assault, but he immediately grappled with his attacker. In the scramble the native, who is a powerfully built man, lost his grip on the revolver. During the struggle for its possession two shots were discharged, tho weapon fell to the ground and the constable managed to get his foot on it. Thg overpowering of the Maori, who had all the strength and cunning of a madman, was a difficult matter, and it was only after 15 minutes’ struggle that the constable was able to get him sufficiently under control to allow him to free one hand to extract his whistle from his pocket and blow it, bringing several residents from the immediate neighbourhood, to his aid. With their help the Maori, who was still full of fight, was handcuffed and conveyed to the police station by his captor. It Is understood the Maori was under the delusion that he had been specially engaged by the Government to search for a dangerous criminal who recently escaped from Mount Eden Gaol.