ALLEGATION OF MURDER

Hawera Star, Volume L, 24 February 1931, Page 5

ALLEGATION OF MURDER

TRAGEDY AT NATIONAL PARK COLSTON’S TRIAL COMMENCES OPENING OF GRIOWN CASE.

(By Telegraph —Fret* Association. > HAMILTON, Feb . 23. Tiie trial of Charles Colston, 38 years of ago, mo udder, of YVanganui, ±Qr tlie alleged, murder of Alice Rose Florence -muerson at National Park on January 6 opened, in tiie supreme Court at Hamilton to-day before Mr Justice Smith. Mr H. T. Gillies, Crown prosecutor,* in opening the case for the prosecution, described McFarlane’s farm, Where the tragedy took place. The house stood beside a little used road in Upper Re tarn kg flush district, some miles fromNational Park station. It was a spot utterly desolate. Mr Gillies said the murdered woman, Mrs Anderson, was formerly known, as Airs Fisher owing to an alliance formed with Fisher, to whom she formerly acted as housekeeper in the Upper Retaruke and later at Wanganui. To him she bore a child. Her sister, Mrs Tolley, had also' formed an alhan.ee with tiie prisoner, Colston. . She had two children, Ernest aged 16 and Phyllis i aged 14, who were known to many people as Ernest and Phyllis Colston. On December IS Colston, Mrs Tolley, Mrs Anderson and the three children, accompanied by a boy named Storr, who was friendly with young Tolley, went into the Upper Retaruke with a view to entering upon an abandoned farm for cutting firewood. They arrived at McFarlane's farm on the night of January 3, Saturday. . That night a case of wine arrived at the farm. On the Monday a second case’ reached the house, and on the Wednesday morning a third case of wine arrived at National Park station for Mrs Anderson. The adults of the party commenced to consume the wine on Saturday night during a game of cards. By Tuesday morning, when the tragedy occurred, about 19 bottles had been consumed. Mr Gillies here stated that prior to leaving Wanganui Colston purchased a gun and cartridges under an assumed name. On the Tuesday morning there was an argument over certain bottles of wine that had been hidden. Later Colston was angry with Phyllis Tolley and followed her with a gun and fired at her. He was followed by Ernest Tolley with a rifle, with the avowed intention of shooting Colston _if the. lab ter shot his sister.

On returning to the house Ernest Tolley found. Mrs Anderson and his mother fighting on the floor. He man—aged to get Mrs Anderson back to, her ; room. He had a pea-rifle in his hand; Young Tolley would say he locked Mrs Anderson’s door on the inside.

Shortly afterwards Colston, cam along and endeavoured, to get into the room by banging on the door. Tolley knew Colston had the gun. Becoming alarmed, young Tolley would say, he broke the* window with the butt of hia rifle and, jumping out, ran and-hid in the bush. It would be shown that later a shot was heard, and it was contended by the Crown that this was fired from outside the window by Colston at Mrs Anderson as she stood up in the room in front of the window.

Three shots were fired that morning. . One, the Crown held, was fired by Colston at Phyllis Tolley, one at Mrs Anderson, and one at the tyre of a motorcar belonging to Mrs Anderson. The boy Storr in the meantime had glair., loped' away on a horse to get the police/After remaining in hiding for a time young Tolley came out, got the motor car and drove in the direction of Nat-' ional Park station. On the way he picked nip Cblston, his mother and the little bov Fisher.

SUGGESTION OF ACCIDENT

The defence, said Mr Gillies, would be that the rifle went off during a struggle between Colston and Mrs Anderson. The position of the pellets in the woman’s face and the fact that there were no powder marks or burning on the face discounted this theory while * pellets embedded in the centre wooden astragal of the window showed that the shot must have been fired from outside. Mr Gillies said that careful experiments had been made by experts with shots fired at various distances from the window. These showed that at 4ft.'6in from the window a shot fired made exactly the same marks on the astragal, and gave exactly the same pellet pattern on a piece of wood as wasfound on the dead woman’s face in a position six inches within the room. The four-year-old child of Airs Anderson would sav that “Uncle Charley ’ shot- his mother. Exactly what eredeuce- should be given to the story oi a child of such tender years was a matter that rested entirely with the jury. Counsel read the law bearing on the question of drunkenness and its relation to crime, which laid it doWii. .that drunkenness was no excuse. William Augustus Hulton, surveyor, Taumairunui, gave evidence as to visiting the scene of the tragedy, where lie made certain measurements and a plan of the locality of the house. The house showed blood stains on the wall and floor of Mrs Anderson’s room. Thedamage to the astragal was quite new. There were pellet marks in the . wall behind the windows. These were higher than the ones in th astragal. Owing to the angle ait which the shot was fired anything in the line of fire- within the room from a height of 4ft. IJin. to sft. would have been struck by the shot. Dr. W. J. Feltham, Raetihi,. said on the wav to MoFa.rlane’s farm he met a. car iii which there was a woman’s dead body. It was still warm. The woman had died from a shot wound, and he. assumed the shot had been fired

from a distance of from 20 t 0.25 feet.. Witness saw Colston that afternoon. He appeared dull and apathetic. Dr. E. Fisher, Taumarunui, who conducted the post-mortem examination., described the injuries received by Mrs Anderson. The hearing was adjourned till tomorrow.