THE ALLEGED POISONING CASE AT TIMARU.

At the RM. Court, Timaru, on Monday, before Mr J. S. Beswick, R.M., i and Messrs Edward Elworthy and H. ! J. Le Cren, J.P's, and G. G. Fitzgerald, Thomas Hall and Margaret Graham Houston were charged on remand with attempting to murder Catherine Hall, the text of the charge being as follows: — 'The information and complaint of Patrick Macintyre, a medical practitioner, of Timaru, taken upon oath this 15th day of August 1886, before me, John Jackson, Esq., one of Her Majesty's justices of the peace in and for the said Colony, who saith that he hath just cause to suspect, and doth suspect, that Thomas Hall and Margaret Graham Houston, of Timaru, in the said Colony, on or about the 15th day of August 1886, at Timaru aforesaid, did feloniously administer to one Catherine Hall a certain quantity of a certain poison called antimony, with intent in so doing then and thereby feloniously, wilfully, and to their malice aforethought, to kill and murder the said' Catherine Hall, contrary to the statute, being an indictable offence. — (Signed) P. Macintyre, M.D.' Mr J. W. White (of Messrs White and Co.), Crown prosecutor at Timaru, appeared to prosecute ; with him Mr ■Martin (of Christchurch) and Inspector Broham. Mr Perry (of Messrs Perry, and Perry, Timaru) appeared for the male prisoner (Hall), and Mr Hay for the female prisoner (Houston). Mr .Hamersley watched the case on behalf of Dr P. Macintyre. Mr White said he, with Mr Martin, of Christchurch, appeared to prosecute. The charge laid against the. prisoners Thomas ■ Hall and, Margaret Graham Houston, and which they were now about tO inquire into, . was one of the greatest and most important ' in the annals of "crime, and he would show during the progress of the case that the evidence was conspicuous in disclosing the fact 'that this charge was one of a most sensational character and important nature. He would now take the court, first of all, to the time when the, male accused married Catherine Hall, on the 26th of May last year, and tell them that he (Mr White) intended to show that 17 days before the wedding day Hall borrowed from Hutton's bookseller's shop a book called ' Actions of Medicine,' by Dr.: Headland. While he had this book away he cut pages 273 to 297 and 369 to 377 inclusive. He (Mr White) would particularly impress upon the' court that the portions of the book cut bore particularly on deadly poisons. After keep-, ing the book some weeks, Hall returned it, cut in the places mentioned ; and then he was so much in the habit of looking over another book, called ' Taylor on Poisons,' that Mr. Hutton said to him, 'You appear to be so taken up with that book, Mr Hall, you'd better buy it.' At the end of May or the beginning of June, 1885, Hall did buy it. --- : - Mr Joynt here interrupted counsel's address, and asked, his Worship to order all but expert witnesses out of court. This being done, Mr White continued : When Hall got the book he wrote on the front page of it, 'Thomas Hall, 1882,' and at the end of the book, ' Dunedin, T. Hall, 1882,' and yet the book only came into his possession in May, 1885. Therefore the court would, he submitted, consider that Hall, doing this, had some certain object in view. This book prisoner had always kept, and it was found among his effects, when he was arrested. However, to continue with the story. On the 24th July, some two months after the parties were married, Hall gave instructions to a solicitor practicing in Timaru — a solicitor who \vas in no way connected with the family of either Captain Cain or Hall — to prepare Mrs Hall's will, and to prepare it entirely in prisoner Hall's favor, leaving everything to. him real and personal. The will was dated 28th July and executed in August. Previous to the 19th August of last year Hall saw the agent \ of the Mutual Provident Insurance SoI ciety and had a conversation with him about insuring his (Hall's) wife's life for LSOOO. After some preliminary business, Hall again saw the agent and. gave him two proposals. One was for L3OOO, payable on the death of his wife, the annual premium of which was LB2 ; and the other proposal was also for L3OOO, payable in event of the wife's death in seven years. The policies were duly made out and handed to Hall, and he kept them up to the time of his arrest, when they were found along with the will and marriage certificate in a drawer in a safe at the office of Hall and Meason, of which firm the male accused was a partner. He (Mr White) now came to a very important part of the case. It would be shown to the court by evidence that about the 12th of June this year Hall purchased two loz bottles of antimonial wine ; on the 18th -Joz of antimony ; on the 26th another of antimony ; between July sth and August llth Boz of colchicum wine, and on June sth or 6th 2oz of this wine. Also about this time (August 11) the male prisoner's wife was very ill-- — so ill in fact that her medical adviser (Dr Mac-

intyre). held a, consultation with Dr Lovegrove on the subject. After the consultation* Dr Macintyre procured some of Mrs HallVvomit, submitted it to analysis, and found traces of antimony in it. The doctor also sent some of the vomit to Professor Black. • He also analysed it, and found antimony. On Sunday morning prisoner Hall went into his wife's bedroom, and in the absence of the nurse administered some iced water to her. She complained of the unpleasant taste the water had, and her husband replied that he could not account for the bad taste. Directly after taking the water a feeling of nausea came over Mrs Hall, followed by severe sickness. Soon the nurse came back to the room, and having secured the cup, saved some of the iced water in a bottle and kept it for Dr Macintj're. The cup was then taken to the kitchen and washed with warm water. When the nurse returned to the roona Mrs Hall said to the male prisoner, ' The water was nasty out of that cup, Tom.' He replied, 'I do not know why it should be.' I poured the water out of that jug' (indicating the jug which contained the iced water). But he (Mr White) said it would be shown that on Monday night Mrs Hall had iced water out of the same jug and cup and it had no ill effect whatsoever. It was only after taking the water from the hands of Hall that the sickness came. It was a portion of this vomit which had been secured by Dr Macintyre, analysed by him and by Dr Black, and was found to contain antimony. He (Mr White) could assure them that the evidence was conclusive on this point. They had four witnesses to sail to bear testimony on this fact. At the time of this sickness Houston visited Mrs Hall and expressed sorrow that she was so ill, and regretted that the iced water did not agree with her. Directly afterthis Dr Macintyre arrived at the house. He was astonished to find Mrs HaH in such a low state. He got the vomit, with the result as stated ; and on Sunday evening, the 15th August, had both prisoners arrested for attempting, to murder : Mrs Hall by the administration of antirhony. When the prisoners were arrested by Inspector Broham and Detective Kirby, the female prisoner tried to explain by saying Hall used the antimony for photographic purposes, and Hall accounted for being in possession of antimony by saying that he used it for asthma, from which he suffered. Hall also told Houston to say nothing, and, turning to Mr Broham, added : ' What shall I say % I suppose a man should be cautious with such a charge against him.' Mr Broham replied, ' You can say anything you please, or nothing at all.' Hall then added * that he had used antimony for a long time in making a preparation for cigarettes, and had often got itatGunn's and Eichbaum's (two chemists). Miss Houston has had nothing to do with it. What I did was entirely mine.' All the time Broham and Kirby were in the room Hall seemed anxious to get his hands into his trousers pockets. He was repeatedly cautioned, but at last succeeded, while Kirby was out of the room a minute, in getting his hands into his pocket. Mr Broham at once rushed at him, and Miss Houston at once sprang between him and Hall. There was a fire behind Hall's back, and after the struggle a quantity of white powder was found on the hearthrug, and also a small cork, which, it was found, fitted an antimony phial. Detective Kirby next came back to the room, and the prisoner Hall was searched. In his right-hand pocket was found a phail, which on analysis was found to contain antimony ; and one of his trouser pockets was found to be wet with, something or other ; what it was would coriie out later. The police then searched Hall's bedroom,' and found half an ounce of antimony there, and amongst other things the book 'Taylor on Poisons.' As Mr Broham picked up this book Hall said, ' I suppose this also will score against me.' In the presence of Constable Hicks, the watchhouse keeper, he said to Houston — 'You have nothing to do with this ; I cannot* ' possibly get off.' It would also be shown that about three months ago Mr and Mrs Hamersley were dining at Hall's. After dinner the servant brought a cup of tea. Mrs Hamersley took one of the cups, and despite the protestations of Hall and Miss Houston, , who said the cup was for. 'Mrs Hall,' she drank it. The consequence was that she became very sick indeed. On the 18th August Mrs Hamersley was again visiting Mrs Hall, and her attention was arrested by a strong smell of kerosene. The smell was traced to a loft just off Hall's bedroom. In this loft were found some rags, sticks, and rubbish saturated with kerosene. A new tin of kerosene was also found, and the evidence would show thab Hall got this tin from Hibbard's shop, had j it wrapped in brown paper and sent to his office, frOm where it disappeared. It would also be shown that, he affected on June llth au insui*ance on his furniture for L6OO, and that the executors for the. late Captain Cain had insured the house, and that in the event of a fire no loss on either house or furniture would have been sustained. It would further be shown tbat for some time before marriage, and ever since marriage, the male accused had had considered monetary difficulties ; that his account was largely overdrawn

at the bank and had remained so ever since the marriage; • and • that ■as far back as December 1885 he had committed forgery. At this time he forged a bill for L 205 and received the money, and had from time to time renewed the bill, the whole being a forgery.' The bill represented L 225, and was not due till December of this year. Mr White then stated the things which had been sent to Professor Black, and for which he intended to lead evidence at length' and show that they all contained antimony. He would also show that since the arrest of the accused Mrs Hall became immediately better, and was very soon able to leave her sick room. He might here mention that the symptoms after illness went to show that she was being slowly poisoned by autimony, and he would show by skilled evidence that the dose of iced water mentioned was so great that instead of it remaining in the system and doing its work it had the effect of creating nausea and sickness. He would show that the case against them was a strong one, but before concluding he would like to say a few words about the female prisoner. He would point out that from her remark to Hall she knew about the antimony, and meant the remark as a hint to him. He did not accept the hint. Her conduct when Mr Broham was struggling with Hall was also strange. And yet another proof of guilt : she also waited on Mrs Hall, and with the exception of an early cup of tea saw to all Mrs Hall's wants. It would be shown that from the effects of the tea Mrs Hall did not suffer, but after having her breakfast she always showed grave symptoms of illness. It would also be shown that both accused remained up in the house together after 11 and 12 o'clock at night — after all other people in tlie house had retired to rest '. that they were on the most friendly and familiar terms, he calling her ' Megrims,' she calling him 'Tom.' — (Sensation.) That on one or two occasions she had been seen by the servants coming from Hall's bedroom in her dressing-gown, and on several occasions had been seen going to his bedroom in her dressing-gown at unseemly hours in the morning and evening. On one occasion the servants saw Hall sitting writing in the diningroom, with Miss Houston leaning on him with one hand on his shoulder and the. other arm round his neck, and that several times Hall had been seen 'pulling Miss Houston about,' as the servants called it. The two were, in fact, nearly always, together and driving about. Since both had been arrested, she had written to Hall, addressing him as 'Dear old Tommy Dodd, — Keep your spirits up, love ; all will be right on Monday. From your loving Megrims.' — (Laughter and sensation.) Mr White said he would not now take up more time, but would call evidence to show that the case was a strong one, and one that the court would have no difficulty in coming to a conclusion unon.