A QUEENSLAND TRAGEDY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVII, Issue 97, 27 April 1891, Page 4

A QUEENSLAND TRAGEDY.

fnx TEIiEGBAPH FROZI THE BLVFF-] Brisbane, April 13. Particulars regarding a tragedy at Lucky Valley are to hand. It appears tiiat about ten o'clock on Tuesday morning a man named Sweeney, his wife, and two farm Lands were engaged m milking cows m the stockyard. Sweeney, vflio was perfectly sober, and apparently, quite sane, sent j the two men. away on errands, and when they had been gone about a quarter of an hour they heard two gunshots m quick succession, and a minute later one of Sweeney's sons rushed after the men, saying, " Father has shot mother." The men ran back to the yard, and found Mrs Sweeney lying dead, with two gunshot wounds, one m the back and another m the head, and Sweeney dying from a fearful wound m the abdomen. • Sweeney was m town on the previous day, and bought a doublebarrelled breech-loading gun. Having sent the men away tn= next raoiniDg he appears to have loaded the weapon and walked up behind his wife as she sat milking, and shot her under the left shoulder. She must have fallen over, and Ihen while she was Struggling on the ground he put the muzzle of the gun below her Jeffc ear, and blew half her head away. Sweeney then shot himseU In tbe abdomen. He spoke oDce or twice, and expressed some contrition for the deed. From the contents of a document found upon him, there can be no doubt that jealousy was the cause of the tragedy. Wht Not Indeed? — He had done his business for years through the same Christchurch firm. The bales of wool from the Email station came down regularly, and the stores went up with unfailing punctuality, and all accounts were promptly and satisfactorily settled. So, when, one morning, he burst into the manager's sanctum m a state of boiling indignation, that official was greatly surprised, and had scarcely presence of mind ecough to ask him what the matter was. " Matter indeed 1 Why look at this," and he produced the envelope of the last letter the firm had sent him. "Look at that I 'Mr Dougald M'T&vishl' Mr indeed! Why amn't I Mr Dougald M'Tavish, Esq., the same as the rest of the ehentlemen ?" And this was a conundrum that required a good deal of tact upon the part of the manager to answer satisfactorily. — " Aulus," m the Australasian. jj