MENTALLY AFFECTED

Hokitika Guardian, 10 April 1929, Page 2

MENTALLY AFFECTED

POLICK 11 MU) AT MAY

KXCITKMKXT IX IMI IV ATM HOTKL.

WAXG'AXUI, April 8

A man believed to he mentally affected held four policemen at hay in a private hotel for two hours early yesterday morning. Terrifying s: reams invoke boarders in the Trafalgar Private Hotel about four o’clock, and pyjama-clad guests scurried along the corridors to investigate the* trouble. Cries of “.Murder” and “Police’’ were traced to a single room on the ground floor occupied by a foreigner. The proprietor demanded that the door should he opened, hut the reply was: “If von come in here I’ll rip you

open !” The police were then sent for and a long siege commenced. They could see through a ventilator that the man was fully dressed in day attire and his intentions undoubtedly were suicide, as he held a brand-new blade razor in one hand. The open ventilator above the door served as a periscope, and the man could see the re (lectio us of tin 1 police, and lie brandished liis razor as if to slash their "faces. The mail caught sight ol the police peeping around the sides ol the window. and he commenced to throw the furniture about, hurling articles of hed-mom crockery through the closed window.

“1 have plenty of ammunition,” he yelled. Having used all the crockery, ho commenced on the diiohosso. [lulling the drawers out and smashing them into small pieces, which served him as batons. r lhese were hurled at the policemen every time he caught sight' of their heads.

After keeping up an almost incessant bombardment, which the police were able to escape, the man was prevailed upon to listen to reason and was handed a clip of tea in exchange for his razor. He then became an easy quarry.