Howard Elliott Assault.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 20 October 1917, Page 4

Howard Elliott Assault.

SCENE EN" COURT.

AUCKLAND, Oct. 16. At the Police-Court, Gunner' Charles Clements and Herbert McEntee'-were charged with' assaulting Howard Elliott by striking Mm with a stick. The couTt was crowded and there ■ was hoot ins and cheering when, the accused was called. Counsel for the accused asked for an adjournment to obtain evidence from Wellington. The court granted the remand for one week. In a statement made to a Kerala representative, • Clements said that on his return from the front he was informed that certain statements about his late sister had been made by Elliott. , "As I was advised that I had no legal remedy," he continued, "I decided that I would thrash Elliott at the first opportunity. That opportunity did not arrive until to-night. Accompanied by my brother-in-law and armed with a raw hide horsewhip, l went to Elliott's house, Mt. Eden. Arriving there at about half-past seven, we stopped outside. In a few minutes Elliott and a lady —his wife, I think —came out of ihe house. He was wearing an overcoat. As the former, approached the door of a taxi I accosted I him, asking Mm if he was Howard Elliott. He replied in the affirmative. 11 thereupon said: — '<'Why did you slander my dead sister?' " '' ' Who are you, or who was your sister?' " asked Elliott. "I raised my thong and I struck him across the shoulder, saying: 'I am the brother of the nun who was drowned at Taumarunui.' I had struck five blows when Elliott wrenched the thong from me, but McEntee regained possession of it and handed it back to me. I continued to administer the thrashing, and presently Elliott broke away and attempted to run through his gateway, but McEntee blocked Ms escape. In the struggle that ensued Elliott fell'and was rolled in the gutter. When ho arose again, I once more struck him a few blows with the thong. "By this time a number of people had congregated and formed a ring around us, several of them calling out to 'lay it on to him.' When I considered I had punished him sufficiently I let Elliott go, and he went back into the house, whither his wife had preceded Mm. Meantime the driver of the taxi had driven away. Believing that Elliott had rung up for the police, as it turned out to be the case, my brother-in-law and I awaited them. When they arrived we offered no objection to beinsr" arrested. I had vindicated my dead sister's honour."

When Sub-Inspector Broberg received a telephone message from Elliott's house, he despatched to the scene in a motor-car several officers. They found Clements and McEntee outside the house, and arrested and conveyed them to the lock-up.

A statement made by the Rev. Howard Elliott was to the effect that he left his home in Mount Eden about 7.30 o'clock. At the gate he was accosted by three men, who said that ho had made statements reflecting on their women folk. Two of them seized his arms and urged the third, who was a soldier, to use a" stick over Elliott's head and to .disfigure him to prevent him speaking at public meetings. Mr Elliott said that in the course of the struggle he was dealt a violent blow on the side of the head with a stick, and he was also struck across the face.