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Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 320, 17 April 1875, Page 3

The Christchurch murder case was completed on the 10th. The following is a digest of the caseOn-the day in ques - tion the murdered girl, -who resides in Dampier's Bay with her parents, came in- ; to town' to get tickets at the Colonists Hall for the school : picnic. " Shortly after five in the evening, the prisoner was seen with the girl by two persons standing at the Albion Hotel. lie then spoke to a person standing there, leaving the girl to go on by herself. lie was .afterwards seen to overtake the girl, and proceed with her towards Ox-ford-street. He was next seen coming from a gorse hedge where the- body was afterwards found, : with marks of blood on him, ."and he was seen brushing his clothes, apparently to get rid cf some dust. The next trace found,- of him was just before the ; starting, of, the train for Ghristcliurch, when he ,was noticed to have blood on him, and also in the train," where those in the carriage, remarked about his getting in in that state,, when he said he had been killing a sheep. This was about 6 p.m.; and after the train had gone the body of the murdered girl was found by two boys in a hole in the gorse fence in the locality toward which he and the girl were seen going. The blood on the prisoner's clothes. was microscopically examined, and found to be the blood of some animal which suckled its young, but could not be sworn to as human blood. Afterwards number of spots were found on prisoners legs. On being questioned lie said they were only pimples, and that no gorse prickles could be found upon liim ; but, medical examination being made, a number of gorse prickles were found where the skin was marked. Prisoner,.when arrested, de- • nied having had a knife on the day of the murder, but two witnesses swore to having seen a pocket-knife in his possession that day, and identified the knife found in the coal tub on the vessel where the prisoner Was arrested as the knife they saw. His Honor, having.summed, up,- The jury retired for twelve minutes, and returned into Court at the end of that time with a ver - dict of Guilty. . His Honor assumed the black cap, and passed sentence of death. The prisoner, was unmoved. During 1874, there arrived in Liverpool, from Canada and the United States", 78,000 persons. .Many came with return tickets. -

Orders have come from England to hold several regiments in India ready for an expedition beyond our own territories. The destination of the expedition is not -known.