THE TURANGANUI TRAGEDY.

Evening Star, Issue 9386, 7 May 1894, Page 2

THE TURANGANUI TRAGEDY.

The story of the brief married life of Mr and Mrs Edmonds, as unfolded at the inquest, was a very sad one. The dramati-cally-interrupted ceremony of which the world is now talking took place on the 29th March. On the ffUth the ceremony was completed, and bride anfl groom went on to Featherston the same day, next day going to the house of the Woods at Turanganui, where Edmonds had been living since September, and where it was proposed that he and his wife should remain. And there they did remain, with the exception of a fortnight, during which the bride went to Wellington (so she told the coroner), in consequence of her father being ill and sending for her. On the 21st the husband also went to Wellington, and on Monday week both returned to their Wairarapa home. A WEIRD COURTSHIP. In her evidence the widowed bride told the story of her strange courtship and marriage. Her lover was of a very peculiar temperament, she said, always fault-finding and abnormally jealous James Woods described him as a man who was jealous of his wife talking to anyone, who would not himself converse with anyone, a morose man, subject to fits of sulkiness, and who never appeared to take his eyes off his wife. The wife said she had “kept company” with him for two years, during which time he had displayed most peculiar temper. He was always cross with her, and If sue spoke long with others “rowed” her for it, and told her that she must care more for them than for him. Yet he seemed affectionate, and often told her that if she did not marry him he would shoot her. If anyone called her by her Christian name he “ new out at them.” Once, in his father’s house at Karori, he drew a revolver, and told her that if she did not think enough of him to marry him he would shoot her. So, in fear, she E romised to marry him, but they did not ecome formally engaged till just before he came to Pirinoa, which the Woods said was in September last. THE INTERRUPTED MARRIAGE. Edmonds fixed the marriage for the 27th March without consulting his Jiancie, and then postponed it to the 28th, because his clothes were not finished. Again it was postponed, to the 29th, when he called for Mjss Hare at her father’s house. She then told him that she could not go to church with him, as she did not care enough for him, hut he told her that once married she would learn to care for him, and finally persuaded her to go to the church. There she made her now famous refusal. She says she did not speak to the disapapointed bridegroom in tho church, but they met later at her father’s house in the presence of her mother, and he “went on so” that she “ took compassion on him,” and- agreed to go and sec the Rev. Mr Waters again She. did this, the groom’s father ami brother being present, ami she “ does not know how it happened,” but she went from the parsonage to the church and was married. Her father had consented, but her mother would not. LIFE AT TURANGANUI. Of the life at the Turanganui home there are many glimpses. James Woods, in whose house they lived, says that the couple seemed affectionate, but there was loud talking every night, both speaking in a loud tone, and it appearing as if Edmonds were finding fault with his bride. Mrs Woods says that Edmonds was of a jealous nature, but she never heard any quarrel between the couple. Mrs Edmonds says that her husband was strange in his manner, and she asked him if he had any monetary trouble, but he said he had not. He merely owed the Woods £6, and Mrs Woods says she did not know he owed anything to anyone but her husband. James Woods, on the other hand, says his lodger was “in debt all around the neighborhood up to £6O, he thought. When Mrs Edmonds asked her husband the nature of his troubles, however, he said his only trouble was that he was always thinking of her. “A MAN WILL DO ANYTHING.”

On the eve of the 2nd nit. they had a tiff, in which she taxed him with deceiving her by saying he had himself furnished rooms for her at the Woods’s house, when he had not done so. Re replied that “a man would do anything to gain the object of his affection.” She threatened to go home to her people. He replied that he would never allow her to do so, and in the morning brought a gun and cartridges into the bedroom and said “ Let us both die together.” He added that he had no wish to live, as only the thought of her kept him alive. He was, she said, always of an excitable temperament, and had told her not to speak to anyone, as he was jealous of everybody. THE FATEFUL NKfHT. Then came the fateful night of the 261h. The husband had a cold, and retired to rest about 7.25, leaving the wife playing cards with the Woods downstairs. An hour later she went up to join him, taking with her gruel for his cold. They had only been in bed for a few minutes when her husband said she “did not care for him”—she “ thought more of the Woods ” than of him. Presently he jumped out of bed and seized his gun, saying coolly that he “ hail oiled it for more purposes than one.” She took the gun from him; and stood it in a corner. He had often, Mrs Edmonds said, got this gun before and looked at her qucerly, but she hid her fear. He went back to bed and called her to him, and she sab on the bed beside him, and he kissed her. Then she went to bed, and they talked for some time. Woods says ho heard them “talking all through the night.”

“LET US .BOTH DIE.”

Edmonds kept “harping on the one theme”—“You have no love for me.” At about one o’clock she dozed off, and just before three woke suddenly, to find her husband standing by the bedside with his trousers on, and the gun in one hand and two cartridges in the other. “ She threw her arms round his neck,” and cried: “ Oh, Herbert, what are you going to do.” He said solemnly: “Lotus both die,” and, as sho screamed, he added: “Prepare yourself for death.” She succeeded in getting the gun from him, and ran with it out of the room. The breech was open, and she extracted two cartridges and hid the gun in a box on the landing, covering it with clothing. .As she re-entered the bedroom her husband was coming out of it. There was a candle burning, which he had evidently lit; The wife threw herself on the bed and sobbed, her husband begging her not to “ make a scene.” He took her in his arms ami talked; to her, and presently they went to bed again and she to deep. HOW THE MAN PIED. At six ' o’clock on Friday morning, Mrs Edmonds says, her husband woke her, and they talked until 6.35, when he got up and began to dress. She told him to put on-a clean-shirt, but he said he was putting on the shirt he was married in. Then she noticed that the gun was once more in the room, behind the door. He picked it up and brought it to the bedside, but just then Mrs Woods called to them from the stairway that she was bringing up some cocoa and coffee. Edmonds dropped the gun, and taking the two cups, pub one on the bed and the' other on the dressing table; and while placing his wife’s cocoa on the bed he bent over and kissed her, saying “ Good-bye, darling.” Then he kissed the rings qn her fiqgejrj bidding ijer not to take them ,off +ill the day she died. He asked if Mrs Woods bad gone downstairs, and on his wife replying that she did not know, went out of the room. The wife, as she leant on be? elbow, on the pillow, sipping her cocoa,

•| It " ■ called aftet hint to tell "lire Woods she Wanted Jwn He replied “Yes,” and immediately the house. was startled by the repeat of a gun; The report, and the hysterical screartis of the wife, brought Woods rnsbipg up&taiia, and in a spare room adjoining the Edmonds’s bedroom —a room contaihlhg Only A bed add a small table—he fotind Edmbnds lying dead, the gun by his side, and the back of his head blown away, while the room was bespattered with blood and brains.

AN AGONY OF LOVE.

The local constable searched the body and the bedroom for any waitings which would throw tight on the act, but all he found was this , letter, in deceased’s handwriting, which the widow said tallied with letters sent her by her husband daring his strange courtship. It ran thus !

Wellington, 2nd February, 1894. My Dourest Lovo.-fHow Can I describe the agony your coldness has paused me of late.. Oh, why did I ever learn to Jove you, if this is tp be the end of all! But turn to ,me again. My Lpve My Darling, and bring back healing and sunshine to my wounded and desolate heart. Do so, and rescue—Your Broken Hearted Lover. THE DEAD MAN AND HIS KIN. .

Herbert Edwards was a native of Surrey, but had been twenty years in this colony, to which he had been brought when five years old. He was described as a slight, sallow man, with a dark moustache. His father and brother live in Wellington! The widow was left wholly unprovided for. — ‘Post.’