A MIDNIGHT QUARREL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6827, 21 June 1900, Page 3

A MIDNIGHT QUARREL.

4 _ A MAN SERIOUSLY INJURED^ A quarrel, attended hy serious results, occurred in High Street shortly after midnight. A nuimiber of young men were having supper in Fail's restaurant, and two of them, named . Divers and Trounsen, behaved in a manner which excited the amusement of tihe other occupants of the supper-room. This apparently irritated them. After they had finished their meal they went outside and waited. The first person who followed them was a young man named J. Daly, who is well known in local athletic circles, particularly as a member of the Canterbury Rowing Club. The two men accosted Daly, . and a quarrel, an accurate reason for which it is difficult, to ascertain, . began. The attention of the constable on that particular beat, Constable O'Connell, was drawn to the affair by someone calling out " Tommy ! Tommy!" Daly was then seen to have hold of Divers, and was in the act of hauling him over the gutter. Trounsen ran to. his companion's assistance only to receive a cuff on the side of the head which knocked him down. The constable on approaching tihe scene of the altercation, called out, " What gam© is this you are up .to," but before he could 'get near, enough Divers is said to have lifted' his stick and hit Daly, whose attention was directed towards the other man, a violent blow across the side of the head, saying at the same time, " Take that, you ." Daly, apparently considerably d n zed by the blow, was turning towards his assailant, wihen the latter, saying, "And take 'that also, you ," it is said, made a violent lunge with his stick at Daly, and caught him with . the point just over the eyeball, lacerating the eyelid, tihe force of tie blow driving the stick in for more than an inch, and so violent was the shock that onlookers say that Daly was lifted clean off his feet and thrown backwards 00 a ledge of stone ( three or four inches above the pavement, in. front of the window of Wallas bookshop. The blows, it is stated, followed one another in such quick suocessdoai that tihe constable, who was but a few yards distant when the first was delivered, had just reached Divers after he had mad© the second, preventing any more being given. Noticing the serious condition of Daly, who ihad sustained a severe cut . on tihe back of the head, which was bleeding profusely, in addition to the injuries to 'his eye, the constable sent for medical assistance, and arrested Diveirs. Two doctors arrived on tie scene shortly afterwards, and, after dealing with Daly's wounds as well as tihey could on the spot, ordered his removal to the ihospkal, where it was discovered that he was suffering from concussion of tihe brain, but the injuries to tfhe eye were such that tihey could not then be attended to. Trounsen ran away imme. diate'ly on his companion's arrest, but returned shortly afterwards to find ids hat. He then hailed a cab to go home, but as soon as he stepped in a constabte jumped in also, and 1« was driven to the police station. The stick with which the injury to the eye was committed was of strong wood, . but the force of the blow had broken three or four inches off at the point, and alb the break was adhering something like a piece of;, skim. Mr J. Y. Daly, the injured man,; is a well-known athlete, and' he has for some years been one of the leading members of -the. Canterbury Rowing Club, ,rf which,, he /is a standing "representative. He has saved '.people from drowning at Sumner, :;Ncw ■ Brighton and Lyttelton at great personal%sk, and in a heavy surf in the .New Brighton instance. Being strong, healthy • and ['constantly in the best of training, Mr Daly has always been very popular, not only with athletes, but with the public generally, and great sympathy is expressed for Ms misfcrtune. : Henry Harris Divers is employed as i-n. assistant steward on board the Rotomanana, while Thomas James Trounsen is engaged in the jewellery trade. Divers admits having caused Daly's injuries, but denies any malicious intent, stating that the affair was the outcome of a slight altercation, and his actions were done in self-defence.