THE CAIN CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7799, 19 November 1886, Page 5

THE CAIN CASE.

THE ADJOURNED INQUEST.

VERDICT OF WILFUL MURDER/

IMPORTANT EVIDENCE. [BY TELEGRAPH— OWN OOBREBPONDBNT3.I Timabu, Thursday. The inquest on the remains of Captain Cain was continued this morning before Mr. J. S. Beswick, coroner, and a jury of six. Hall was present. The following evidence waa taken :— Florence Gillon, examined by Mr. White, said : I reside in Wellington. I was recently on a visit to Woodlands on December 19 last. Captain Cain was taken ill on the Monday after I went there. I went to Cornstall on Christmas Eve to stay with Mrs. Hall, and I think Hall went to Woodlands. Afterwards Hall said a report was current in town that Captain Cain was not being fed properly. Hall said it would be better if one person only looked after the food. Miss Houston, Mrs. Newton, and I were present, and he turned to Miss Houston, saying, "Suppose you do it." Mrs. Newton said it would be impossible to manage it that way, as no one person oould do it. I think this was three or four weeks before Captain Cain's death. Hall said something to the effeot that it was a pity when people were so ill as Captain Cain was that the dootor could not give them something to put them out of the way to prevent them suffering so much. I remember Mrs. ball saying to her hußband that Captain Cain had made another will. Hall said " All the better for us," and looked very pleauod. On the night before Captain Cain's death, Mrs. Newton and I oocupied one room downstairs. Mies Houston was upstairs. George Kaye and. I think, Mra. Tubbe sat up with the captain that night. I am not sure if Hall and his wife came that night, but they were frequently there, especially Hall. I think during the time of my vieit that Hall only missed coming every day on two or three occasions. His first call was generally between nine and ten a.m. and the next call about five. 1 remember die tinctly his coming once to lunch, but I think he came oftener. Uβ used to remain usually till about half-past six. 1 know he came back twice to stay all night at Woodland. I asked Mrs. Hall, when I was at Cornstall, in December, why Mrs. Peters had left. I think Hall was present. Mrs. Hall replied to the effeot that Mrs. Peters had got it into her head that Hall was poisoning her (Mra. Hall). We all expressed amusement at the idea, and Mrs. Hall said, laughingly, that " Tom was always reading 'Taylor on Poisons, , and she didn't half like it." I have always heard Hall express the opinion that Captain Cain would not recover. Br. Mclntyre had told us the day betore the captain died that he might live three months longer. I do not think Hall was present at the time. I remember Hall procuring some port wine of a poorer quality for .the man Kaye to drink, because he suspected that the good wine obtained for Captain Cain was being drunk by Kaye. Hall afterwards remarked that the poorer wine was not taken by Kaye. Captain Cain often talked to me about his symptom-*. With regard to Hall, he said to me, " You will be surprised to hear that Tom Hall makes Kitty such a good husband." Captain Cain said he could not account for his sickness. On Christmas afternoon I remember being with him, when be was very siok. Hall had been there that morning, and I believe on the night before. I heard that Captain Cain had said that if it was not so absurd he would believe he was being poisoned. I do not remember him saying this myself. In answer to a question from the coroner, Mr. Perry said he did not mean to take any further part in the inquiry, as he did not consider he had been fairly treated. Emma Brignall Ostler said, I remember dining at Woodlands the day before Captain C»in took to his bed. Hall, Mrs. Newton, and Captain Cain were dining together. Hall was about to help Captain Cain to some liquor which was on a stand on a table, when deceased said that it always made him siok, and he declined to take it. Hall then took the captain's glass, and handing it to the cupboard, poured something into it. The glass was behind the door of the cupboard, and Hall was stooping down. He poured something into the glass, put it on the table, added some water, placing the tumbler by the side of Captain Cain. Up to that moment the captain seemed quite well. When dinner was half over the captain began to retch violently, and had to be aieisted from the room. Hall saw me home from Woodlands three nights before Captain Cains death, when he remarked that Woodlands was a very ill-fated house. Hall once asked in Mrs. Newton's and in my presence if we did not think the dootor should be allowed to give Captain Cain something to let him die without such pain. The captain was suffering very much at that time, I have often heard Hall express his opinion that the deceased could not possibly get better. He said this when he spoke about the doctor. Frederiok Leoren said : I and Captain Cain were trustees under the settlement made on Mrs. Hall seven years before her marriage. Towards the end of 1885 Hall spoke several times about money. I said I was quite willing so long a» I was properly released. On December IS Hall and Captain Cain drove to my house when 1 was absent, and on the following day Capt. Cam came to my office and told me he wished me not to release the trust. 1 afterwards informed Hall of this interview, and he said under advioe he was going to apply to the Supreme Court to get the funds baok into his wife's name. This wae shortly before 1 sot the writ (produced, dated January 15,1886) At that time the trust amounted to about £750 in cash with accrued interest. From what Captain Cain told me I do cot think he would have paid the money over till ho was obliged. Captain Cain died two days after the writ was served. Hall ordered the case to go by default. The case could not have come before the Court before June, and Hall knew, as far as I was concerned, that the action would not be defended. I paid the money on the 16th April. I knew that if Captain Cain had lived he would not have agreed to pay the money over voluntarily. The business was entirely transacted by Hall. I remember being at Captain Cain's house the Sunday before Christmas Day, when he said, "It is a very strange thing that I should be so lick," and added that when he could not sleep he used to take his grog, but now it made him siok. He had been aocustomed to grog all his life. To the Coroner : Captain Cain never told me he thought he was being poisoned, fie said Hall had been very kind to him. Jowsey Jackson, blacksmith, at Sweetwater Creek, said: I remember an invalid bed being ordered from me on January 12 for Captain Cain, and about nine o'clock the same night Hall saw me about it, and told me to make the most speed possible. The next time Hall saw me he said he thought Captain Cain would not live over eight or nine days. I finished the bed on the 15th, and took it to Woodlande. On that occasion Kaye gave me half a tumbler of champagne, and I was very sick after drinking it. 1 am not subject to sickness, and had no other liquor on that day. Win. Arthur Mason, olerk in the National Loan and Agenoy Company, said: 1 was a good deal with the late Captain Cain, for some months before his death, in the even ing. Hall was very seldom there when I was there. The captain suffered from sickness some considerable time before his death. On one occasion he told me hie grog disagreed with him. He said this was strange, as he bad been used to take grog all his life. I think I was at Woodlands the night before Captain Cain died, but I cannot say for certain. Hβ was then about the same as he had been for some time before, neither better nor worse. Wm. Geo. Gardner said: Towards the end of January, having heard Hall wanted a house, I offered to rent him mine. Hβ said he would not take a house, as he expected Captain Cain to die in a few days. This is what he said, to the best of my recollection. Colias Blenheim Enchbaum, a chemiet in Timaru, said : Hall purchased from me in November half an ounce of atropia; on January 27, half an ounce of eyedrops, which I take to be atropia. It is a strong poiaon, and the active principle of belladonna. The prescription for the medicine, which he said waa for a horse, was dated March, 1886. Colohioum is an irritant poison, and would cause depression. William Henry Williaway, assistant to Mre. Watkine, said: I produce the books, which show that Hall bought 2s worth of colchicum wine on November 13, 18S5. Francis Worcester Stubba said: I first went to visit Capt. Cain in January last, when he was ill. I was an old friend. I gave him some champagne out of a bottle with a patent

eyphon. I did not open the bottle myself. From that day till the time of his death I was at the house every day. I only taw H»ll two or three times daring this period. I eaw him there after the invalid bed came to the house. I asked him how the captain was that day. Hall said he thought he was worse, adding that he did not think he could get through the night. I never eaw Captain Cain take any solid foot—nothing but jellies. He was not generally sick after takinc these, but I have seen him so on several occasions. The first time I saw him sick was after he had taken some whisky, and the spirit had the same effect on the Other occasion. . , George Kaye said : I went to the captain a in January last to help to nurse. Mrs. Hall came to the house everv day during the time I was there. I and Wren took the nursing week about. I believe I have seen Hall there, and he used to go in the sick room. He need to be alone with Captain Cain from five to ten minutes, and I usually left the room. Hall told me several times to go out. I cannot swear that Hall has told me he has given Captain Cain drink when he wanted it, but I believe he has done so. Spirits were kept on a table in the aiok room, and the medioine during a part of the time. The captain was often sick, but I can't remember if the sickness came on after Hall's visit. I was in the house the night before the oaptain died, and Hall was not there to my knowledge. The captain has said to me that they (and I took him to mean the inmates of the house) would be glad if they could get him out of the way. He was quite sensible at the time he said this. To the Coroner: I was not in the habit of taking the captain's whisky. I took some port wine, but not much. It never made me ill. 1 used to drink champagne, but I can't remember whether I did ao on the day Jackson brought the bed. Richard Bowen Hogg (re-called) said: Golohicnm and atropia are both vegetable poisons. Sickness similar to that described in the evidence -vould be prodaced by oolchicum. It might be produced by atropia, but lam not quite sure. The amount contained in my prescription of March, 1885, would be about four grains to the ounce, and this would be enough to poison several people. Traces of the preeence of suoh poisons as oolchicum and atropia would not be dieoovered by analysis in the remains some months after death. This concluded the evidence. Mr. White, in reply to the Coroner, said he did not intend to sum up, as he did not consider it necessary. The Coroner thought the jury would have little hesitation, after hearing the evidence of Dr. Hogg, in arriving at the conclusion that the late Captain Cain had met his death by poisoning. The law was that if death was accelerated, no matter in what condition the victim might be, it was murder, Tbey would have to consider who would benefit by the death of Captain Cain, and from R. Nubbley'e evidence, it was plain that Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Newton would benefit by the death. The evidence pointed to Hall being oonneoted with the deceased. Poison had been found in his possession since hie arrest for attempted wife murder, but no evidence showed that poison had been found since Captain Cain died. The jury having taken the Coroner's notes of the evidence, retired to consider their verdict. At a quarter-pa&t three o'clock the jury returned to the Court. The foreman •aid : " The jury are of opinion that Captain Cain's death was accelerated by poison, but by whom administered there is not sufficient evidence to show. They therefore return a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown."