A DASTARDLY OUTRAGE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10534, 22 January 1912, Page 5

A DASTARDLY OUTRAGE

POSTMISTRESS SAVAGELY ATTACKED. HER , ASSAILANT ESCAPES. The Kimibolton correspondent of the Feitding Star telegraphed on. Saturday : A d&Btardly outrage was., committed at the Kiwitea, Post Office in the eartly hours of yesterday morning, causing a great shock to th4> whole district. The victim, Mrs Kernahan, is a widbw, and has been in charge of the office for about two years. About one o'clock 'yesterday morning Mrs Kernahan, who was sleeping with her daughter Marjorie, 14 years of age, who was home for the holidays from, the Wanganui Girls' College, heard the noise of a window moving. A man opened the window and demanded the keys of 'the safe. Mrs Kernahan refused to hand them over, and screamed for help. Her little girl was awakened by the screanv and unlocked, the bedroom dbor and ran across the road to Mr Kilgour's place to give the alarm. In the meantime, the nlan dragged EVCrs Kernahan out of the five or &x yards away, and brutally assaulted her, either with a heavy stai or-an. irocc bar.. nvusfc haVc been, very seveire, rendering tlie .&#- woman unbonscio'us.^ OnrSeing aroused, -Mr Kilgoyr got bis" v g,un an.d( \veriV to .the next'house for his brother. While doing so, Mr . Thomas, who waR at. Kilgour'replace, hurried over to the post and found Mrs Kernahan lying iinoon-Eo-ious on the grass, bleeding freely from wouiicif; in the head and amf. Everything possible wa# done for the unfortunate .'ady, and communication was made wirii Pe:lding. Mt Alex. Banks, being awakened, and informed of the affair, very kindly and quickly motored to Feiding, and informed the police. | l>r Wallis came out, and, on examination, found one arm broken in | two places, and the woman's head and face badly cut and bruised. Sergeant Bowden aiid Detective Quirk hurried to the scene, with Constable Fitzgibbons, and made a thorough investigation of the affair. So far they hav* been Tillable to get a trace of the perpetrator of the shocking and! cowardly assault. The . little girl did not see the man, though she lieard him demand the . keys. ■ Mrs Kernahan is, still, too ill to give.any information ..to-'.the police. Wtith.. Constable Fit/gibbons, a party of settlers scoured the whole countryside yesterday, but without finding the least trace of the man. One or two clues were followed up, and it is believed a suspected man in the district has been closely questioned by the police. They are satisfied, (however, this man had 1 nothing to do with the affair. Mrs Kernahan is a most obliging and popular official.