CONSTABLE AND FIREMEN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 973, 14 November 1910, Page 6

CONSTABLE AND FIREMEN.

A MELEE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Dunedin, November 12. A brutal attack on a ; constable took place yesterday evening at Port Chalmers, and resulted in two firemen, William Mulcahey and Charles Ridley, from the steamer Kia Ora, being heavily penalised this morning. The evidence was to the effect that the constable saw two firemen going up the street, one carrying a bundle very suggestive of uncustomed goods. He asked the bearer to come to the police station to have the bundle examined. The fireman' and. constable were proceeding down the street quietly, when Ridley rushed into a public house and brought out seven or eight other firemen. This pack' attacked, the constable, who lost charge of the maji with the suspicious bundle, but succeeded in arresting Ridley, who headed the attack. Several young men belonging to the town came to the constable's assistance, otherwise he would have been moro severely handled, kicking and punching being the mode of attack. When the constable came out after locking up Ridley the melee was in progress. The constable tackled one' of the worst offenders, but was knocked down ■ and dazed by a blow on the side of the head by Mulcahey's clenched fist. The prisoner escaped, but Mulcahey was arrested. Mr. Asher, J.P., fined Mulcahey £5 or three months for assaulting the constable, and £5 or three months, for obstructing him, the sentences to be concurrent. Ridley was similarly penalised.