ASSAULT ON A DRIVER

Press, Issue 14828, 20 November 1913, Page 8

ASSAULT ON A DRIVER

TWO ARRESTS,

(PRESS ASUOC-ATJON TELEGRAM.)

WELLINGTON, November 19.

Considerable excitement prevailed in the direction of Brooklyn late this afternoon as tho result of an apparently unprovoked attack upon a young man named Walter Johnson, employed as a driver by Mr J. O'Brien, carrier. Johnson was driving a one-horse lorry up Willis street, and as he approached tho Brunswick Hotel he saw a number of pickets standing on tho footpath. One of theso men jumped in tho lorry and accompanied him as far as Fitchett's blacksmith's shop in Ohiro road. The intruder then alighted and rejoined his companions, who had walked this distance. The party followed the waggon along to the corner of Marania crescent, and here the man who had previously constituted himself a passenger took his coat off, and calling Johnson a "scab" wanted to fight him. Johnson was then set upon by tne whole crowd of followers, who numbered about twenty. He warded off the blows of the nearest with a good deal of determination, and fortunately before any injury could be inflicted on him the mob dispersed at the alarm of "police!" A large squad of special constables were ordered out from Mount Cook barracks, and they entered the suburb at a gallop, ready to render what service was necessary. Tho crowd, however, had dispersed at the mere mention of authority.

Two men were arrested in connection with tho affair—William James Reeves, on a charge of using insulting language, and Thomas Y'ann, on a charge of having assaulted Johnson. Johnson was cut and bruised about the face, but his injuries arc not serious.