DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 213, 3 June 1919, Page 5

DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

FOOTPADS IN MELBOURNE

ATTACK UPON ZOO CURATOR, '..In broad daylight and within, thirty yards of his office at the Zoological Gardens at Royal Park,. Melbourne, Mr. Dudley' Lee Sonet',' the: curator, 1 was attacked by two footpads,' blindfolded with a .hes-dfan-'bagi" stiinrte'd.'with 'a leaded- "lifepreserver," and' robbed 'of' nearly iIOO, which was to be paid in wages to the staff. Planned. with care and executed with aniazing .audacity, the. purpose of the assailants was effected within thirty seconds, and. the two men cscaped by dashing through the grounds of the cura. tor's dwelling. As has been tho case in several instances of a, similar charactei in Melbourne .within the past two years, the robbers seem to have made themselves thoroughly conversant:, with the. move ments on pay day of tho man singled out for attack. There was certainly no hesitation displayed, and tho time of Mr. Le Souef's return from the bank with the inonoy was judged' with remarkable ac curacy.- For some considerable time it has been his practice 'to drive to tho Bank of Victoria in Collins -Street 'in a wagonette to draw the wages of the 6taft employed at the-gardens. He was in tht habit of leaving his .home at a fixed time every i'ridaj. The wagonette, in which were Mr. Lt Souef and Mr. Arthtor Parsons, a returned soldier,: who is employed at .the gar dens . as groom, loft the bank >' shoi tlj after half-past eleven o'clock,- and a few minutes 'before twelve - drew up outside the gat?. Mr. Lo Souef alighted from tho vehicle' and' walked towards thb gato, •while Mr. Parsons drove the wagoaette on to the main entrance. The curator was- carrying .£B3 in two canvas bagd in an inside breast, pocket, and in addition held -in his hand a Gladstone bag. Parsond drove on, and 800 varda from tho gato. passed,-, a cart being driven by Henry -Meaker, one of tho park rangors. When Meaker opened-tho gate which Mr. Le Souef had passed through not five minutes previously lie noticed a hessian bag with attached cords lying on the path, also tho ransacked Gladstone bag, and close by a very formidable "life preserver" had been liurriedly thrown down. . In addition there were blood stains on the ground and every indication of a sharp struggle having taken place. Almost at the dame moment a woman clerk employed in the' office went to tho door to ascertain if Mr. Le Souef had returned, and was in time to see him lurching along a path skirting a tennis-court with blood streaming from' wounds about his head and staining his . clothes. ,

' Lyin<? on a couch, with great patches of antiseptic plaster covering: several gashes in his head, Mr. Le Souef related what happened when he pushed open the Kate. He had no sooner taken two steps inside the fence than a young man sprang upon him and'em-eloped his head in a kind, of liessinn hood, which was drawn tight about his neck with cords. Simultaneously the leaden life preserver, wielded with murderous force by the other man,'.descended on his head, and, as he reeled under the combined onslaught, Mr. Le Souof eavs he was dealt three more violent blows about the head, and was badly stunned. The Gladstone bag .was.snatched from hie hand, but on being found to contain only business papers was flung :down by one of his assailants with an oath. With great ranidity the injiired man's pockets were rifled, and the cash bags located. A strong cord was then passed round his arms by one of the men, and, unable to cry for help owing to tho suffocating bag about his month, lie was rendered helpless. "That'll do; we'vo cleared liini out," hissed 0110 of his attackers in a half whisper, and the two men, wlio, from the fleeting glimpse he had of them, Mr. Le Souef believes are little more than youths, clambered through a fence and escaped.

Honiton, Devon, AVar Work Party made | 100,4-7(5 articles, consisting, of bandages ' sphagnum ino.w dressings, and similar things, and ended with a balance in haiul of .£l-18; which is to be given to the King's Fund for Disabled Soldiers and Sailors. The liev. E. C. Phytliian-Adams, some, time Fellow of AVorcester and afterwards rector of Dynilor, Hereford, who died recently, in his ninety-second year, hud, in Oxford days at least, one most unusual experience. He took Second Class Honours in tho Final School of Lit. Hum., afcMichaelmas, 185), when nobody was placed in the First Class, It wbb not an altogether undistinguished list, for J. G. Sargent, who was Hertford Scholar in, 1818, ancl Ireland Scholar in 1851, also got a Second. A blank in the First Clasj in Classics was probably unique, though in' 1812 J. T. Coleridge' had a First all to himself, whilst in 1842, 1848, and 1857 there were Firsts with only two men in it.