NAPIER. May 31.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2211, 2 June 1879, Page 2

NAPIER. May 31.

Prisoner M'Lennan was to-day committed for trial on a oliargo of poisoning hi* wife. The case occupied the Resident Magistrate's Court a)} tlje week, and hat e*cited great public interest. The most important additional evidence given was that of a woman named M'Donald, who knew prisoner at Oeraldine. He told her before his wife's death that he was over head and ears in debt, and had passed forged cheque*, bat that he had managed to keep hia wife in ignorance of his trouble*. After her death he again appeared at witness' house, at Patangata, and remarked that it was a good job that his wife was out of the way, as he was free to go to Africa. She afterwards found that there was a suspicion of his wife-'f being mnrdered, and told him •o. He mid, with somo oqriosity : " Gould they detect poison "so long after death 1 Jso : I loved her too mqch to poison her. ;> He also said that if an attempt were made to arrest him he would shoot the policeman, and showed hor a revolver. The Maori chief Hiroka Tuiba, who obstructed the railway line, was charged at the Police Court with the offence. Inspector Scully said he had received instructions from the Government to withdraw the information, as there were extenuating circumstances. The Resident Magistrate said the summons was withdrawn because it apnearet) that in the morninsf the prisono* haa been bjbcjtH fiom the railway carriage with urulti*f<>vc« for smoking, and had then alluvrcd hia temper to get th* better of him. H« had,

however, informed the station-master at Kopua of his intention to obstruct the line, and he no doubt thought he had a right to prevent trains passing orer his laud. He had, however, rendered himself liable to penal servitude for life, and it was to be hoped that this would bo a warning to him.