A STRANGE STORY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4368, 20 March 1875, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY.

(From the Tasmanian Tribune, Feb. 25.) Two voting girls, sisters, named Ann and Sarah Brodie, were yesterday brought before G. Inge, Esq., J.P., at New Norfolk, and eliarged with having assaulted and maimed a man named Henry Nelson, and his wife. It appears that all the parties concerned are employed. on the estate of Mr. Triffitt, in the occupation of stripping bark, and that the man and the woman had said something to the disparagement of the girls, which so enraged the latter that they proceeded to the residence of the couple—which, we hear, is a very primitive one—and, before they had time to think of defending themsejves, attacked them -with stones. The man was struck violently on the head at the first onslaught, and thus rendered incapable of offering any resistance, and the woman was so seriously injured—being found in an insensible state after the ill-usage—that she was unable to attend in Court. Dr. Moore was in attendance shortly after the occurrence, and forbade her removal at present. When Mr. Stephenson, the superintendent of the New Norfolk police, arrived at the scene of the outrage, the female victim was at the house of Mr. Triffitt, where she had received a second visit from the determined Amazous, who were accompanied by their father, and expressed their intention of " finishing" her, which object their venerable parent appeared as if he was ready to assist them in accomplishing. They were, however, dissuadedfromputtingtheir murderous resolve into execution by the parties who had the female victim under their care. When apprehended, and asked why they had been guilty of such ferocious conduct, they declared that they would serve her in the same manner again if similarly provoked by her. The man is severely cut in six different places about the head, and the woman, to all appearance, is still more seriously injured. The perpetrators of this outrage are quite young girls, the elder being eighteen years of age, and the younger only sixteen. The majority of the families who gain a living by stripping bark live in a very rough style—men and women, girls and boys, working in the forests together —aud their sleeping accommodation and general domestic arrangements are not of a character consistent with a high state of civilisation and refinement, but rather having a tendency to develop the unfeminine ferocity which is exhibited in the case before us.