SENSATIONAL FIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 182, 19 December 1912, Page 5

SENSATIONAL FIGHT.

POLICE AND SUSPECT. A WEIRD TIME AT NEWTOWN. Several members of the Wellington Soutli police force had a wild anil strange experience on Monday. The house of Mr. William Joseph Davis, oil' Hutchinson road, Xewtown, was broken into some time during the day while the occupants were away. The police state that entry to the house was effected by cutting a pane of glass out of one of the front windows. A suit of clothes and a lady 's gold watch were stolen. The suspect discarded his old clothes, and arrayed himself in tlic new garments. He subsequently returned to the premises, and tlie police were quickly on his track. Sergeant Matlieson and Constable Taylor traced their quarry,, but effecting an arrest was not as easy a task as they anticipated. In fact, when the police calne on the scene the "fun" commenced.

The man is stated to have feigned madness. He fought the two police officers hard, and shrieked like one clct mented. His shrieks brought a crowd of onlookers from the main thoroughfare a couple of hundred yards avav. Nothing would induce him to submit to arrest. The police were forced to ''scrap" him. They threw him, held him down, and bound him hand and foot. Then they got him to the Wellington East police station. At the police station his violence increased. • "lie was the most violent man I ever saw," said Sergeant Matlieson. "1 have never seen anything to equal it. Before we could succeed in getting the stolen property we had to take the clothing off' him by main force." The watch was secreted in the mail's shirt, and when it was discovered he fought hard to retain possession. Eventually he smashed it, and then the police had to drag it from him bit by bit. "He is not very big," added the sergeant, '"but, my goodness, he is tough. He is the most, troublesome character [ ever handled."—Dominion.