Another Murderous Assault.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1288, 30 September 1880, Page 2

Another Murderous Assault.

Ad 10 o'clock this (Tuesday)morning,Mr C.B. Stone lode up to the Police Court,and without dismounting, announced that this morning the Pijmn had encountered a washerwoman in the Mount Eden district, and with a blow from the axe fell her to the ground. Her arm is believed to be broken ab well.

The Fijian Captured. The settlers btarteil in pursuit, and soon afterwards captured the man at Mehille's place. This gentleman with his wife and family resides, at Mount Albert, the road leading to his house being one leading to the left diagonally oil the New North road, beyond Mr Taylors place, and nearty opposite the residence of Mr CB. Stone. The road fronts Mr Melville's house on two angles, the main entrance leading on to the verandah, and the side entianee from the angle taken by the road enters on the back. The house itself is a two-storey building. The outpremises, instead of being at the back, are on the west end of the building, off what might be designated the side or back enhance. The wash-house is only about 30 feet from the main building. It is <i boaided structure, the bide facing the house being close boarded, and the entrance from the side opposite the remaining portion of the shed, which contained coals, boilei n, etc. Between the house and the Mash-house, lather closer to the latter than the foimer, i.s a pile of firewood logs. Theie is an entrance to the kitchen from the \ard, and the) e is also a .side gate through the front fence to the front ol the house, and thence to the \crandah. These paiticulais are requisite to make comprehensible the seem 1 which followed. On Tuesday morning about 7 o'clock, or slio' tly afterwards, M i s Mel\ illetold Mr Melville that tlure was a black man in the wash-hous", and that he had f lightened Li/./ic Braithwiiite, the servant girl, into hv.steries Before this, however, the Fijian had been seen by Mrs Arnold, a washer- woman, who had been engaged. She saw him ciou r hintr in a corner of the w ash-housi\ Mr» Arnold, who had been in the Fiji, and recognised him at once as a nati\ c of the I -lands, was not in any-wi-c alarmed. Seeing an axe in his hand, she naturally supposed he had been emplo\ed to chop firewood. In answer to a quotum to th.it effect, he icplied "Yes.'' ife loin uned in the wash-house "while Mis Arnold was making her preliminary preparations t"r the day's woik. In the nuantime Li/zio Biaithwaite, opening the door of the w ash-house .saw what appeared — no doubt from his venemous expulsion — to be th.it of the fiend him.self, and as a n.ituiaJ consequence she sei earned, and was absolutely f lightened into hystoiu's. It was at this time that Mrs Melvi'l 1 called Mr Melville's attention to the piesence of the interlopei. Mr Melville was paitially diessed at the time, and, speedily finishing a hasty toilet, he went down to the yaid. The Fiji. in was still in the wash-house, eiouohed behind the end paitition, ne\fc to the door. Mr Melville looked in, and saw him. Inieply to a question as to what lie wanted, the Fijian made no loply, so Mr. Mol\ ille reached in, and e.mi>ht him bjthe back of the neck to put him out. Just in time however, Mr. Melville saw tho desperado feeling the nxc, which he had before observed, so spimging back he avoided the blow struck at him and ran for the back door of the house, pursued by the savage. He had not a moment to spare. The fiend was at the door almost befuie it could bo closed. Had the blow come down it must have killed Mr Melville, but that was not the only narrow escape which he had within the succeeding 1 few minutes. Mr«. Arnold did not make u.se of the diveision in her favour to make good her escape fiom the a\ ash-house. She was either unsuspicious that the Fijian might turn his lage on her, or peihaps paraly/ed by the onslaught .she had witnessed; but, at all events, she was the next victim selected. The Fipan m.shed at her with nplitted axe, but sho pluekily met his approach, and giasped the handle of the a\e before it could descend on her. A struggle then ensued, the woman screaming all the time ami the Fijian endeavouring to recover his weapon. He seems to have succeeded in reaching a small tomahawk, used for breaking lumps ot coal in the coalshed, and with this he struck the poor woman a desperate blow on the forehead, opening a wound between the temples just above the no.se, and a second blow inflicted a horrible flesh wound on the ii.jht arm between the elbow and wrist, which reached to the bone. The whole thins? was momentary. Mr Melville heard the screams, and issuing on to the a craudah fi om the front door, he saw the woman on the ground in front of the wash-house, and the Fijian above her. Te ru^li to the rescue through the gate A\as the impulse of the moment. To readi the Fijian he had to pass the woodpile. The Fijian seeing the man approaching, at once desisted from his attack on Mrs. Arnold, ami rushed on Mr. Melville with the axe, he had by tlns time recovered. Mrs. Arnold, taking advantage of the demonstration in her favour, ran bleeding and shucking into the house. Then came the tug of war. Mv Melville is by no means a robust man, but ho proved himself to be conl and biave. Hurriedly pivking up a billot of wood fiom the pile, ho met the Fijian. Jlis weapon --halt of a tea-tree lon, six inches in diameter and emved.was scarcely a match for an American axe, but ho swung- it, and met the descending blow of the a\e which was intended for his head. Horrible to relate, the log was thrown out of his hand and instant death wa&

impending, but the shock of the blow rather staggered the Fijian, and for a moment he could not 'renew the attack. The moment was a precious one ; it euabled^Mr. Melville to seize the log again, and the first upward twirl of it again met the descending axe, this time not on the edge, but on the handle near the head ; and so great was the force of the blow that the handle broke, and the axe dropped, lpaving the Fijian with no other weapon than the broken handle. The log of wood was more than a match for this, and Mr Melville speedily recognising the fact, with another swing of his unwieldly weapon struck his adversary such, a blow that he was sent reeling and helpless against the side of the house. A second administration of the same weapon caused the wretch to cry out. Mr Melville refrained from striking again. He only wished to render the fellow harmless, being under the impression that he was an escapee from the asylum. He, however, called to Mrs Melville to fetch a rope, which that lady promptly did, and with a presence of mind which under the circumstances was, to say the least of it, unusual, she brought with it her husband's revolver. At the sight of the weapon, the potency of which the wretch at once recognised, and expecting nothing less than instant punishment, he held up his hands, and gave expression to piteous wails. He offered no resistance whatever while he was being roped lip. Mr Melville sent for assistance, and a man employed on Mr Appleby's farm, together with Mr Fry, arrived, and the Fijian was rebound, Mr' Fry ? acting of course on the supposition that the Fijian was an escaped lunatic, rode off to 'the Whau Asylum. Two warders arrived and the fellow was manacled and taken to the asylum, where he was kept in custody until the arrival of the police. Detective Jeffrey, who was m^ Sy-monds-street, on being informed of the capture at once started to take possession of the wretch and bring him into town. Sub-Inspector Pardy mounted at the Policestation, and aUo went off. Tho Fijian was captured by Mr Fry, who knocked him down with a piece of firewood and presented a pistol at him. They bound the ruffian hand and foot, and placed him on the cart, which brought him into the police-station.