THE MANOR PLACE TRAGEDY,

Evening Star, Issue 6338, 10 July 1883, Page 2

THE MANOR PLACE TRAGEDY,

Mr C. D. Whitcombe, Commissioner of Crown Lands at New Plymouth, has furnished the ‘ Taranaki Herald ’ with the following particulars relative to Stephenson’s residence in that district*.— “George Timothy Stephenson came to New Plymouth in March, 1875. He was often at the Land Office inquiring about land. He said that he came up from Otago; that he had been in a bank at Cromwell, but that he did not like desk work and had thrown it up, and was then interested in some quartz-reefs, which were turning out pretty well. He, however, intended to turn to farming, and wished to take up land in this district. After looking about, he took up 665 acres in the Moa District—namely, sections 95 and 97, 265 acres, for cash; section 41, 200 acres, on deferred payments in his own name; and section 94, 200 acres, in the name of his wife, Mary Blyth Stephenson, as was allowed by the Taranaki Waste Land Act, 1874, then in force. He went out to the block, and remained there some few months in a tohare , looking after the felling of timber on a portion of the land, some 200 acres, which was being cleared by ! tWO adjacent deferred-payment holders. West and Williamson. I believe he then told me that he was going to Dunedin to fetch up his wife and children. In 1876 he returned and told me that his wife would not leave Dunedin, and hated the idea of farming or bush life, and that he should have to get ; rid of his land. On March 6, 1876, applicai tions were received from himself and his wife to transfer their deferred-payment holdings—his to Edward Burgess Kingdon, and hers to William Alfred Sinclair Kingdon. The Board acceded to the applications, and the Kingdons also, it is believed, bought his cash land. Stephenson was never after this in New Plymouth He seemed much upset at his wife’s refusaUo ; come here, and the consequent necessity for | disposing of his land.”