DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 139, 25 March 1935, Page 5

DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

MAN AND WIFE SHOT. WELLINGTON HOTEL LICENSEE". (Per Press Association.) March 24, James Alfred Duncan, licensee of the Royal Oak Hotel, Wellington, and his wife were found shot dead in their room at the hotel shortly after 6 a.m. to-day. It was customary for Mr Duncan to take the keys of the various bars and cellars with him when he ire-! tired, as a rule, about midnight. He did this on Saturday night. According to instructions a porter knocked at Duncan's room at 6 »*m. to-day to gat the keys in the usual way, but could get no response. He knocked again and again with no result. As tliis was most unusual : he became alarmed and advised the police. They tried the door, and as it could not be opened, from outside, haying been locked inside, the porter offered to get into the room by one of the outside windows. This he was successful in doing and then found both Mr and Mrs Duncan dead, with a revolver lying beside them. Heard Shots. : Tli ere is evidence that the tragedy was enacted at about 3.25 a.m., as at that .time police officers on duty at James Smith's corner are reported! to have heard shots or sounds they took to be shots. They were at once on the alert, but on investigating in the neighbourhood found everything quiet. James Smith's corner is 60 on 70 yards from the Dixon Street side of the Royal Oak Hotel. People _and servants living in the. hotel were, it is believed, not disturbed by shots. Mr Duncan, a man about fifty-five years of age, was a- son of Mr James Duncan, a celebrated! whip in the; old coaching days of Otago, and later proprietor of the Empire Hotel; Palmerston South, where deceased was born. After some experience of hotel management in the South Mr Duncan went to Australia. He came to Wellington about eighten months ago and took over the management of the Royal Oak Hotel at Christmas, 1983. Mrs Duncan also came from Palmersion South. Mr and Mrs Duncan leave one son, Mr Leonard Duncan, who is manager of a motor-tyre business at Launceston, Tasmania, and one daughter, Miss Duncan, of Wellington.