BRUTAL ASSAULT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2407, 21 March 1922, Page 3

BRUTAL ASSAULT.

A RANGER VICIOUSLY ATTACKED.

Te Kuiti, Las\ Night

Details are. to hand of a particularly brutal and murderous assault, alleged to have taken place at Kopaki on the night of March 18th, when William Thirwcll Routledge, ranger of ' flic Auckland Acclimatisation Society, was kicked and battered to unconsciousness,' and then,thrown into a creek by four men.

Tt is alleged that the perpetrators of,the assault had taken possession of a*Y-ase*of whisky that afternoon, and six bottles were drunk prior/to the assault. In a maddened condition the men became obsessed hv the idea that Routledge, who is a stranger' 1 ' to the district, was a spy in the pay of the police. .Routledge, on refusing an invitation to drink, was rushed hv the four men, and dragged out. on to the road. He was then kicked, battered, rendered unconscious, dragged through two and n-hnlf chains of blackberry, and thrown into a creek. He revived in the cold water, scrambled up on the other side, and hid in a wood pile. He heard the four men looking for him, and saving that he must he dead. He crawled barefooted for two and a-half miles to a farmhouse, where lie arrived in a sate of collapse, covered with blood. In response to a telephone message, Sergeant Fenrnley and Constable Kennedy, accompanied by Dr. Mcßae, went to Kopaki. The victim was medically attended to, and brought to Te Kuiti in a dangerous condition, and weak from the loss of blood.

Two men named Holgate and Daly were arrested on the spot, and conveyed to the Te Kuiti police station. Sergeant Fearnlev and Constable Kennedy returned later in tlie day and arrested Iwo other men named Grundy and Glover.

It is expected that it will be a long time before Routledge recovers. Tn the Magisrate’s Court this morning, the four accused were remanded for seven days.