A BRUTAL ASSAULT.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 March 1922, Page 1

A BRUTAL ASSAULT.

BY DRINKERS IN KING COUNTRY. fI!Y TELEGRAPH—PER PRESS ASSOCIATION] TE KUITL March 20. Details are to hand giving particulars of a brutal and murderous assault. alleged to have taken plac'e at Kopaki. on the night of Saturday. March 18th. when William Thirwell Routledge. a ranger for-the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, was kicked and battered into unconsciousness and then thrown into a lereek by four men named Herbert Holgate, a contractor; Richard Daly, a farmer, of Kopaki; and Leonard Grundy and Alfred Glover, two bushmen of Aratoro. , It appears the perpetrators ot tne assault had taken possession of a r ase of whisky that afternoon, and six bottles were drunk prior to the assault. In a maddened condition, the men became obsessed with the idea that Routledge was a: spy in the pay or the police. Routledge refused HolSmte’s invitation to have a drink. He was then rushed by the four men, and dragged out on the road. He was kicked and battered and rendered un- • nTl u dragged through conscious, and was two and a half chains of blackberry, and thrown into a creek. He was revived bv the cold water, and scrambled up the other side, and then lie hid in 'a wood pile. He later heard the four men .looking for them say: "He must be dead!” He next crawled barefooted for two and a half miles to a farm house, where h drived in a state of collapse, covered with blood. Tn response to a telephone message, Scrgt Fearnleyjnd Cnstable Kennedy, accompanied by Dr Mcßae went to Kopaki, and the v tim was medically attended to bight ,to Te Kuiti in a dangerous condition and weak from loss and Daly were arrested on the spot, and were conveyed to the Te Kuiti police station. _. Sergt Fearnley and Constable K nedy returned later in the day and arrested Grundy and Glover. M the th.s morn incr the four accused were chaige remanded for seven days. It is expected that it will take a long time before Routledge recovers.