CHRISTMAS NOTES

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 32, 8 February 1899, Page 2

CHRISTMAS NOTES

(From 6ur Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, December 36

The Christmas season this year in England generally, and in Lbndon in particular, has been more remarkable for its weather than for anything else. Christmas Day itself was fine and bright, and the temperature more Suggestive of early autumn than midwinter, and Boxing Day. so to speak, was only a. slightly soiled duplicate. Towards evening, however, the gentle soii'-westerly breeze which had been blowing began to grow in strength, and by midnight had attained hurricane speed and strength. Its fury increased with the dawning, and for the greater part of Tuesday the gale 'played Old Harry' all over the country. In London and suburbs it did an immense amount of damage, unroofing houses in. several quarters, blowing dowh portions of buildings in process of construction or demolition, several people being killed And many badly injured by falling masonry and flying1 tiles and slates. In many parts of the country the gale was accompanied by a terrific downpour, and in North Wales the rivers rose s6 quickly that sheep, cattle and pigs in contiguous pastures were swept aw»,y before the unhappy farmers could transfer them to higher ground. All round the coast the storm raged furiously, and the damage done to shipping will probably when reckoned up run into at least a milliftn. Happily the loss of life at sea through the gale was so far as is yet known small. As usual the severest sufferer among the coastal harbours was Dover, where from the works in connection with the western arm Of the National Harbour huge piles over one hundred feet long and ; twenty inches square were torn, and their splintered remnants cast up at East Cliff, whilst the massive iron|work of the turret at the end of the ; pier, though considerably over the sea level, was bent like pin wire by the force of thfe water.

Beyond the storm's work the festive reason* fatalities -were rather under th« average, especially thdse which can bd traced to dter indulgence in alcoholic liquorfc. We had the usual crop of Bbtfing Day railwa-y accidents, but nothing approaching the nature of the catastrophe which occurred on the GM4fc Northern line last year it this time. The most serious accident oectifted dn the South jfiastem at AppleddW, near Btaetihgrs. How it ha.pp£ntd is not clear, but an engine and an horee-bd* bAnged Into the tail of a fctAtidHftfy train, And eigrht*€n persons w*r« tature ot lesfe fe*ve*ely injured. 66 far, however, none of them have sueetimbed to their wounds. The collision, 61 : eourae, vcae the result 6i «6Kne6nft blundering, but thesfe sort of Occidents bccur with such painful regoilfciify•. >On Bink holidays that it r«aly 866ffls as though there was a islAckenfhg of. vigitene* and - care amotlnting1 to recklessness on the part oi the companies' servants at such time*.

fa what the newspapers call (shocking tragedies the Christmas season was not entirely unproductive, a triple murder and suicide at Criccieth, South Carnarvon, being accomplished by William Williams, a sailor. His victims were his his wife and his two young children. The family lived in 6»6 of two small isolated cottages on the outskirts of the town, and, the last feeen of them by their neighbour was Oft the Bth mat., when Mrs Williams mentioned that they intended to go to Nottingham for Chrtattoas. "Various circumstances aroused the suspicions of the relatives And friends, and On Tuesday the police forcibly entered the house. In the back bedroOm at, the top of the stairs they found the body of the elder boy. There' was a bullet wound through the head. On a bed in the front room were found the m*n and worna*. The man lay on hie back on the bed with hfs trousers and stocking on, and the** wse no indication that he had been t6 bed. A bullet had passed thWugh the roof Of his mouth a.nd was embedded in the wall. In his ha-ha wa* a. six-chambered revolver, in which there were four Unspent cartridges. Hie wife was by his side, with a bullet wound in her head. The body of the younger boy was in the same room <bn Mrtae bedding on the floor. He had also been shot through the head.". The position of the bodies'indicated that the wife and children had been murdered in their *leep. At the Inquest on the bodies it was proved that Williams, ordinarily a. decent sort of felldw, but who occasionally gave way to drink, was an avid* reader of the 'ls Tew York Police Gaxette' and kindred productions. The Coroner md th> jury attributed the suicide's fouj deed to the morbid effects pro> duced by pernicious literature and pressed ft wonder that such periodicals wer* allowed to be published. Of eoniitttonplace suicides.the season has produced a* full crop* and infanticides have o#iupted a fair share of newspaper attention. On the whole, holder, the festive season of 189$ has been free from those painful sensations which ha.ye so often marred the nation's gaiety .at Christmastide.