CRIMINAL.

Evening Star, Issue 3686, 15 December 1874, Page 2

CRIMINAL.

ARSOX, STABBIXO, AND ASSAULT. Our country exchanges chonicle more than an average amount of crime this week. At Invercargill on the Bth instant, the police received intimation that an attempt had been made to burn down the Waihopai Hotel on the North .Road, the facts elicited being thus stated by the ‘ News ’ : —Mr Sykes, the lessee, and his family, retired to rest in the bedrooms upstairs shortly after ten o’clock, and, about four hours later, Mr Sykes was roused by the noise of bottles falling, and crackling of burning timber. Descending to the ground floor ho opened the door of the store room, which is immediately behind the public bar, and was at once driven back by the flames issuing from the room. Fortunately there was a good supply of water at band at the rear of the building, and the flames were soon extinguished. At an examination of the place, appearances indicated that the fire originated immediately behind the door of the store room, and a small hole in the wall, such as might have been made by rats or mice, was

observed, and through which inflammable material could he pushed. This, it seems, appears to be the particular site of the origin of the fire, and an empty brandy case filled with straw, which was close by, seems to have first caught the blaze, which then spread to some casks, which were charred. This apartment, like all the other rooms in the house, is lathed and plastered. Had it been of the ordinary construction, the probability is that nothing could have saved the building.—On the 9th a man ??£ Dy t r was charged, before Mr M Gulloch, iv. M., at Invercargill, with stabbing one George Haines, a milkman. Tt appears that Dyer was iu company with Haines and others in the bar of the Gladstone Hotel the previous evening, when a quarrel arose between him and another man. Haines endeavored to act as peacemaker, when he suddenly felt himself stabbed iu one wrist by Dyer, who made off iu the confusion. Information was at once seat to the police, who used such diligence that by next morning they bad him in custody. And at Oamaru, on the 10th, one James Burns was sentenced to twelve months’imprisonment, with hard labor, in Dunedin gaol, for an assault committed under these circumstances On the night of December 2 prisoner entered the premises of Mr Crawford by the back door, which was left on the latch for one of the inmates of the house. Besides Crawford and his wife, there reside in the house Mr and Mrs Richmond and a brother of Mr Richmond. Mrs Richmond heard some one enter the house and strike matches in the kitchen. He then tried her bed-room door, which was locked, throwing her into a great state of alarm. He then opened Mr Crawford’s bed-room door and struck a match, and seeing Mr and Mrs Crawford in bed made a rush at the former, caught him by the throat, ami endeavored to strangle him. After a gold deal of trouble, Crawford, who got out of bed, succeeded in getting prisoner down. Assistance arriving, the police were sent for, but the prisoner Lad made off, taking with him a coat belonging to Mr Crawford, whose shirt was torn off him, anil who bore marks of very rough handling on the face, neck, and chest.