TRAGEDY NEAR AUCKLAND.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXX, Issue 1, 1 July 1913, Page 7

TRAGEDY NEAR AUCKLAND.

I # j CHILD'S SAD DEATH. AUCKLAND. June 27. The death of Isabel Hall, a child 10 years of age, was caused by her mother at Warkwonth this afternoon, apparently during a condition of mental derangement. Mrs Hall hanged her three children in a barn on her husband's farm, and the girl was killed instantly. The j woman is under arrest on a charge of murder. The tragedy was enacted early in the I afternoon. The father of the child, Ernest Hall, has during the pasit year been farming aibout a mile from Warkworth, some 40 miles north o>f Auckland. This morning he-left his home to z.o to work, a mile and a-half away, and left his wife —a woman about 30 yeare old—at home with tihe girl Isabel and their two boys, aged eight years and three years. Shortly after the mid-day meal Mrs Hall proposed that they should go into the bam and play "gaol." Under her directions tihe children stood on the boxes, and she then tied light ropes to the rafter, and placed slip nooses around each child's neck. Having completed the preparations the mother knocked away the boxes, and leaving the children hanging ran out into the road. The girl was killed instantly, her neck being broken. The little 'boys did not fall so far, and were not actually injured. Their ories were heard by their mother, who apparently returned, and immediately cut the ropes by which they were hanging. The first person to be acquainted with the tragedy was a Mr Shrine who was stopped by Mrs Hall as he was passing, and asked to release the 'body of the child. When he found that the girl was already dead Shine decided not to interfere with it, but went to summon some of the neighbors. He returned shortly afterwards with assistance, but in the meantime Mrs Hall had cut the rope herself. She was afterwards arrested on a charge of murder and placed in detention. Mrs Hall afterwards appreciated the consequences of her act, and was terribly distressed. Some time ago Mrs Hall suffered from a nervous breakdown, which apparently s-eriously affected her intellectual condition. When her husband left home in the morning she appeared to be quite cheerful and in excellent spirits.