CHRISTCHURCH.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1609, 10 April 1875, Page 3

CHRISTCHURCH.

(Per Press Telegram Agency.) Friday. The Lyttslton Murder. At the Supreme Court this morning John Mercer was arraigned for the murder of Isabella Thompson. The Court and precincts were crowded by a large number of people, who remained there with a view to obtaining a sight of the prisoner, but it was only in a few instances that this morbid curiosity was gratified. The prisoner on his arraignment appeared to be most thoroughly selfpossessed, and gazed round the Court with a degree of indifference tnat was quite at variance with the serious nature of the charge on which he was indicted. In general appearance he looked like one belonging to the artisan class, and physiognomists must indeed have wonderful powers of discrimination who could single him out from a number cf other people, and induce the belief that he of all the rest was calculated to commit such a hideous tragedy as that for which he now stands upon his trial. When the indictment was read over to him by the Registrar, and he was asked to plead, he uttered the words, " not guilty," with a clear and audible articulation, and subsequently scrutinised the members of the jury as the result of the ballot called them to take their seats in the jury-box. Eight witnesses have been examined. All the evidence is very strong against the prisoner. Mr. S. J. Joynt is the prisoner's counsel.