THE PAHIATUA MYSTERY.

Evening Star, Issue 8716, 7 January 1892, Page 2

THE PAHIATUA MYSTERY.

WELLINGTON, January 7

The inquest on the victims of the Pohiatus poisoning case, whioh was to be resumed tc-morrow, has to be further adjourned for a fortnight, as a number of the principal witnesses are not sufficiently recovered to give evidence. Inspector Thompson and Detective Herbert are still ia the district. The rumor that poison was contained in the lamb eaten is generally discredited.

In referring to the Pahlatua poisoning case, the ' New Zealand Times' recalls two notable parallel instances :—" The leading case, to use a legal expression, is the disaster at Salford, if we remember rightly, whioh horrified England some thirty-five yeara ago. After mass, on some great festival, a large party dined at the Presbytery, and after dinner most of the hosts and guests were taken ill. Medical aid was summoned just as in this Pabiatua case, and proved considerably more unavailing, for most of the sufferers, some of them members of the first Catholio families in England, died in terrible agony. Every' kind of wild supposition was indulged in, and rumors of all sorts flew. But the explanation after all was Very simple. Those who were attacked, it was discovered, had eaten roat>s beef, with what was believed to be horee radish, a very favorite condiment with the * roast beef of Old England,' as everybody knows. What was there so very deadly (n roast beef ard horse radish ? Simply this, that the horse radish was pot horse radish at all. It was proved that the gardener, or somebody who did duty for him, we forged whioh, had taken monk's-hood by mistake —and monk's-hood is the plant from which the poison aoonite is prepared. The plant bears flowers which are bright, and is therefore a favorite in gardens, or was at that timp. It has soma resemblance to horseradish, and hence the terrible error whioh proved fatal to so many valuable lives of olergy and tyity Another oase occurred in our own experienoaj happily not attended with such fatal results. It hap. pened in Viotoria. A drover, who was travelling with a large number of sheep, passing a station, found he had ooasumed all his provisions by the way, and went to the station store for a supply. He got it, and had a 'damper' oooked for his men, whioh made them fearfully ill. It was discovered that a large quantity of arsenio had been given in mistake for fliur, so large that the violent effeota of the dote, owning early, got r}d of the poison so effectually thai the sufferers recovered." [To the foregoing may bo added a case mentioned in theSanFranouoomailfiles. A man residing in one of the English country districts made, some, wine, whioh was put into a cask. Subsequently the wine marker tasted his preduct, ana quickly became seriously ill. He was suffering from arsenical poisoning, but, , owing to the prompt remedial measures ] taken, his life was saved. Investigation shewed |lu)t v he cask into which the wine was put had previously oo&tained an arsenical weed exterminator, and that the wine had taken op from the wood of the cask sufficient arsenic to kill a thousand people.]