STARTLING LETTER.

Northern Advocate, 1 December 1921, Page 5

STARTLING LETTER.

WRITTEN TO CORONER,

THE WELLINGTON TRAGEDY,

WELLINGTON, This Day.

An inquest was opened to-day by Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., on the bodies of Edward Alfred Foreman and Jean Foreman, his wife, the victims of the Abel t Smith Street tragedy on Tuesday afternoon, when the bodies of the man and his wife were found in the garden of a vacant house under circumstances pointing to murder and suicide.

Evidence was given by Elsie Marion Bews, sister of Mrs Foreman, who said she and her sister came to New Zealand eleven months ago. They had no friends or relatives in the Dominion. They worked in hotels, and then made the acquaintance of men like Foreman and Anderson. The latter was now undergoing a term of imprisonment. Foreman was intensely jealous of his wife, but without cause, she had said. He had made allegations of misconduct which had led to a separation. After that he haunted his wife, meeting her going to and coming from work, and shadowed her at night. Witness was not surprised that anything had happened, as she thought Foreman was mad.

The Magistrate, Mr Hunt, put in a letter addressed to him by Foreman making allegations against his wife of misconduct with two men and giving his reasons for taking drastic steps. The letter said: "I married her full of' hope and flushed with happiness. I lived on day to day hopes of her returning. All is a blank; there is nothing to live for, no interest in life. My castlefallen; my future is what? Work,'"eat, sleep — a life of endless misery, and then die. Mr Hunt, this is not a case of insanity or even temporary insanity, for I am as calm to-day as at any time of my life. I have told my wife I am verging on distraction, but all I get is sarcasm. I shall make one final appeal."

That appeal apparently was made on Sunday morning, but failed. Foreman v " ote a postscript on Monday night, guying, "I have told my wife that life is forfeited and she would be sorry too late." The inquiry was adjourned till next Mondav. —Press Assn.