OUTRAGE IN LYT LTON GAOL. Christchurch, Jan. 26.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 338, 30 January 1889, Page 5

OUTRAGE IN LYT LTON GAOL. Christchurch, Jan. 26.

A convict named Cody was at half-past ten a.m. attacked by, another named Me-, Manus with a heavy hammer, at Rip^aIsland. It appears that a batch of five or six men were working on the lower- part, o£ the island, breaking stones. > wl Mc Manus and Cody had a quarrel, whereupon the former struck Cody several severe bhow,s on the left side of his head over the w eye and, towards the top of the head with ,a heavy hammer which he was using- to break stone's, Cody was knocked, insensible in an instant. The officers were at once acquainted w,ith the facts, and McManus was arrested and placed in irons, while the injui'cd man was sent to Lyttelton Gaol. A surgeon was sent for, but the man died this af tei'noon. - . r McManushasbeenin gaol three monthsfor .vagrancy, and would have been leleased on, Monday. At one time he ..was in the Lunatic Asylum, and has been occasionally very peculiar in his behaviour; * Cody w,as 'only sentenced at Christchurch yekterd^y to additional imprisonment for the larceny of a handcart, but 'had -been previously sentenced on several .charges of< larceny. , rl , The police .report states „that ,fiye prisoners, named John William, Cody, George Duncan, James 4 Jones, 'and? Peter .Laverton, .^were , employed, stone^, breaking togetheV.\. was x vxh] guard, but he did not^see thelactuaLass'aali* committed.; The pother/ three, prisoners ;gaVe the ' alarm, and Reston came up and found Cody uhcon-! scious, with his skull, fractured., The other' prisoners pointedlgu'tt;McManus to Relton, . a^tid said he dia^i6|f* k VE,estbn rt -a'slce^ Mc-^. 'Maiius why he diir'it^He^repiiedr'^fiP? cause he ; threw 'stones at^Aef-fVrhre^ prisoners-state' that McMap^X'f trucK" Chilly/ •with the hammer, four fcim.es. " THe'/ftre^ blow Cody warded. oFs , " V- . '