TRAGEDY AT SEACLIFFE ASYLUM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8446, 23 May 1907, Page 6

TRAGEDY AT SEACLIFFE ASYLUM.

♦• A PATIENT KILLED.

By Association

DUNEDIN, May 22. A tragedy took place in the Seacilffo Asylum to-day. Joseph Rhodda, a miner, who has been a patient since 1904, was in the boiler-house working there with Ah Kee, a Chinaman, and another patient named Roberts. Provost, an attendant, was close at hand outside the boiler-house. Suddenly he heard a noise, and Roberts r jshed out and informed him that Ah Kee had knocked down Rhodda with an axe, while the latter was in the act of striding him (the Chinaman) with a shovel. When the attendant got inside the boiler-house he found Ah Kee with an axe in his hand and Rhodda lying on the floor. Ah Kee was apparently about to strike him again when Provost took the axe from him. Roberts was the only man who witnessed the affair, and he was unable to give any evidence at the inquest, his mind having been a blank since. Dr. King operated on Rhodda, and removed a piece of the skull which had been forced into the brain. For a time the patient improved, but he gradually grew duller, and died. Dr. King's evidence showed that the deceased frequently broke out in fits of temper, and from what had been stated he was of opinion that the story told by Roberts was correct. The jury returned a verdict that death wa3 due from fracture of the skull caused by a blow from an axe.