SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 53, 4 March 1926, Page 9

SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

CRAZED FATHER'S AWFUL ACT. KILLS HIS TWO INFANT CHILDREN. THROATS SLASHED WITH RAZOR. ATTEMPTS HI? OWN LIFE. A shocking tragedy occurred in the Clevedon district between 7 and 8 o'clock this morning, when a father killed his two infant children, twins of three months, by cutting their throats with a razor, and afterwards attempted to take his ow n life by slashing his throat. The man"s name is Septimus Fnge, a farmer of about 3S years of age, whose four-roomed home is just off Tourist Koad. which runs through the picturesque Otau Valley. Page lias a farm in th.-> Otau settlement, the house being distant about two mile-; from (. levedon township. The family are early risers, and Page was up soon after dawn to attend to the milking, while Mrs. and Miss Eileen Finn, a young woman of twentyone, who has been helping Mrs. Page with the household duties since November, when the children were born, busied themselves with breakfast preparations. Mrs. Page had arranged to visit Auckland to-day to bring her small son of three years to the dentist, and at S.SO she left with the bay in the service car for the city, leaving Miss Finn in charge of the two infants, FrMnk and Jessie Alwrn.

" Going to Kill the Lot of You."

Shortly after his wife had left Page entered the kitchen by a side door, having been finishing some work in the dairy. He said to Miss Finn: ''I am going to kill the lot of you. and you will not see your lover again."' Miss Finn, alarmed, wen" to the telephone to ring up neighbour?, but Page rushed towards her and seizing her attempted to drag her awar from the telephone. A desperate struggle ensued, in the course of ■which the girl received scratches. She managed to break away from the frenzied man, however, and running out of the house, rushed across a paddock to Mr. James Colquhoun's house, about 500 yards away. Mr. Colquhoun immediately notified another soldier settler, Mr. B. Quinn, that something wasj> wrong with Page, and the two men accompanied by Miss Finn, returned to the house. On entering the kitchen a shocking sight confronted them. One child was lying on the sofa and the other in the pram,

both with their throats cut, while the father was lying on the floor in a pool of blood, at first glance also apparently dead. They left the kitchen and rang up Constable Holland' and also summoned Dr. Page, of Papakura, and Nurse Brodie.

While they were in the passage they suddenly saw Page stagger out "of the kitchen with a basin in his hand, evidently with the intention of washing himself.

Dr. Page, of Papakura, and Xuree Brodie arrived on the seem , shortly after 0 o'clock, nnd Pago's injuriea wore attended to by the doctor. Although weak from loss ■•:" Ulood, hi? was able to walk abom and wash himself. Suffering From Head Pains. The nurse, on arrival, exclaimed to tiie apparently crazed man: '"Oh, Sep.. win- did you do this terrible tiling?" and Page laconically replied: "T don't how." A little liter lie said that ho had been feeling unwell for a long time and had been frojn pain-; in the head. It i= sa::l by people in the district who knew him that at one time in his life Page suffered from fits and ilia.!: lately he had complained about feeling queer.

As soon as possible. Constable TTolknd, accompanied by Mr. M. J. Sutherland, who at one time owned Page's liou-e. left for the Auckland Hospital with the injured man in a motor rfir. while Sergeant Cowan took charge of the case on the ground, jirior to the Arrival from Auckland of Detectives Barling and Nalder and Constable Hook, who reached the scene of the trasedy about 11 a.m.

The car containing Pase passed the detectives about two mile? from the house. Page was then sitting in the back seat, looking old and haprg.ird, ■with his eyes halt-closed, anrl appearing to be in a very low condition.

The unfortunate man was well respected in the district and was always considered to be passionately fond of his children and devoted to his wife, all his acquaintances regarding him is an ideal husband in every way. He has always been a very hard-working man and of abstemious habit?. He had lived on his present 30-acre farm for about two years, but has been well known in the district for the last 15 years. Mrs. Pace -was formerly Miss Fraser. her father beins the blacksmith at Clevedon. Before being taken to the hospital Page sat down at the table and wrote a confession, which was taken by Constable Holland.

An inquest was opened this afternoon on the bodies of the two children by Mr. C. K. Lawrie. of Pukekohe.