AN AUCKLAND SENSATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1918, Page 5

AN AUCKLAND SENSATION.

HUSBAND ATTACKS HIS, WIFB,' /J LEAVES HER FOR DEAD. ■;§ "• -1 THEN FIRES THE HOUSE, /+ * !i J$ By Tslegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night* At Alfriston, 18 miles from Auckland;M early this morning, a man named Jolw'.'Ji Arnold, 42, farm worker, attempted to}i lturder his wife. The occupants of ihjra house consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold, '*; »i* children, and Mrs. Arnold's father,')'!] J. H. Haiisch. Some friends bad ijeeß.;' entertained and the household retired $ rest about II p.m. About an tour Hansch was aroused by Mrs. Arnold's', screams and he rushed into her bed*,>* 3 room, but was struck on the head fcy' - Arnold and thrust out of the room. He'j then went to a neighbor's for help, and;. ? on returning, found the house in figxe 4 flames, preventing an entrance. They '.vl then went to ring up tho police. ' Mrs. Arnold's story was that a quarrel *'; arose in the bedroom and her htuTwoftjO beat her over the head with a stick «nd|"| tray, and then bound her by the anldes.<: and wrist to the bed-post. She coHappsalj and her husband, thinking her dead,&dt', v; "Now, I'll fire the house," which he did.' ' Mrs. Arnold came to her senses and three ™ times put the fires out, as she ' had worked herself free from the binding).- ! Arnold again attacked her five time?;;?,: and thrust bis fingers down her throat, 1 , J trying to strangle hgr, and then left for dead, but she escaped and, clad in a night-gown, ran over the paddocks to her mother's, where she arrived bkpfi deplorable condition, haying had gotiate swamps and creeks. The house was burned to the grpnpdi'-ii but the children escaped. Arnold htd itt ? some bushes near the house, but "was-";; arrested in the afternoon. He is esH tO!}} have tried to drown himself in a cweikt'l after the crime.' Mrs. Arnold's condition was reported s to be low this evening. 'J/4