STRUCK ON HEAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 67, 21 March 1938, Page 8

STRUCK ON HEAD

TAXI DRIVER ASSAULTED VICIOUS BLOW WITH BOTTLE [ Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, March 20. With head injuries and in a semiconscious condition a taxi-driver staggered into his Upper Queen Street depot at an early hour on Saturday morning and told an incoherent story of having been viciously struck on the back of the head with a bottle by a passenger he had driven to Western Springs Road. The victim, Charles James, aged 30, was still suffering from painful injuries and shock to-day. James told the police how he had been commissioned by a man at tht corner of Wellesley Street and Queen Street about midnight to drive to Western Springs Road. Upon arriving at his destination the passenger, a thick-set man, finally instructed the driver to stop near a corner. Just as James was switching on a light inside the car the man suddenly smashed a bottle across the back of his head. The blow was of such force that the bottle was smashed into many pieces. James said that he must have been unconscious for some time because when he realised he had been attacked the passenger had disappeared. The assailant evidently made off immediately, as the taxi-driver had not been robbed. Detectives carried out investigations immediately but no arrest has been made