A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11856, 7 January 1902, Page 6

A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY.

; FIVE PERSONS DROWNED AT PORT ■ MELBOURNE. SAD FATE OF A MOTHER AND FOUR CHILDREN. ■ Melbourne, December 28. Air exceedingly sad and pathetic tragedy was brought to light yesterday morning, - when the bodies of a woman and three little 1 girls were discovered by two fishermen' in ". the waters of Hobson's Bay, near the : Port ; Melbourne town pier. The bodies were evi- , dently those of a mother and her daughters, , the woman being about 35 years of ago and the children about seven, five and three. ' years respectively. ■ . . The story of the discovery of the bodies is . a short and simple one. Two Port Melbourne fishermen named Richard A. Dawson ' and Samuel Warren, who had been engaged ' at their calling from an ' early hour in the ' morning, were returning to the shore. Daw- ' son was making towards the town pier, and when about 200 yards off -ho noticed the ' bodies of the woman and two of the children floating in the water. He got them ' into his boat and conveyed them ashore. Warren, who had been making towards the ' lagoon pier, about 150 yards to the eastward of Dawson, picked up the body of the young- ' est child and brought it also ashore. It was a sad spectacle as the fishermen brought tho drowned and dripping bodios of the mother and her little ones out of their boats and laid them on the beach. A number of ' people were in the vicinity at the timo on 1 their way to or from their morning bath or 1 enjoying the cool, breezes of. the seashore, • and many of them were visibly affected by the tragic sight. Senior Constable Lynch , took charge of the remains and as soon as 1 the bodies could be removed ,to a place of shelter he instituted a search with the object of obtaining some clue to their identity. .in the woman's pocket was found a leather purse containing five sovereigns, a couple of stamps and a slip Of paper on which was i written the name " Chamberlain." On the woman's marriage finger were two wedding " rings, one a broad ring split open and the other a narrower band of gold. There was nothing further to disclose her identity. The bodies were then removed to the morgue,, and a closer / examination was made. From the bodies themselves, however, no further clue was discovered as to tho identity of the family, nor any indica- ; tion which would throw, light on the cause of the. tragedy. Tho woman had tho appearance of having been a resident of the country, and might have been the wife of a , farmer, and the neat and tidy condition in which the children's bodies were found indicated the attention of a kind mother and careful housewife. THE BODIES IDENTIFIED. A largo number of people visited the morgue throughout the day, some to satisfy a morbid curiosity and others with tho expectation that they might be able to assist in the identification of the remains. Until late in the afternoon nothing of any consequence was learned. , Then, however, a faint ray of light was thrown on to the mystery by two men named Win. Thos. Crawford, a tinsmith, of Graham-street, Port Melbourne, and Arthur Jacobs,' hammerman, of 65, Gladstone-street, South Mel-' ; bourne. These two men were friends, and they had walked down to tho beach at midnight on Boxing night for the purpose of getting away from the sultry atmosphere of their dwellinghouses, and were enjoying the light breeze which intermittently pufted landward from the sea. They walked along to tho lagoon jetty, Port Melbourne, and noticed a woman with her three children upon it. They identified the remains as those of the woman and children. The children were artlessly prattling to each other and tossing about a ball in play. Ihe mother walked' apart, silent and apparently immersed in gloomy thought. She was evidently suffering great mental distress. Her demeanour, coupled with the fact of her being abroad with young children . at that late hour, was such that the two men natur ally concluded that something was amiss. On passing close by her ' one of the men wished her a civil " good-night and made some conventional remark about tho oppressiveness of the weather. She offered no reply, and the woman did not even turn her head towards them. The men continued their walk after taking a mental photograph of the woman and children. Yesterday evening Mr. John T. D. Beck, houso and land agent, formed the opinion from the description of the victims that there was a possibility that the woman might be identical with one of his tenants. As soon as Mr. Beck saw tho faces of the woman and children lie at once positively recognised tho dead woman as Mrs. Lucy Chamberlain, a visitor to Melbourne from Picola West, and the three children as hers. During a conversation lie ■ had with her he noticed that she seemed to be depressed and at times even sullen in her moods; the children on the contrary appeared to be happy enough. Constable Guntcr, of South Melbourne, who was on duty in the vicinity of the beach on Christmas night, recollected having seen the woman - identified as Mrs. Chamberlain on the sands at four a.m. on Christmas Day. She then had four children with her, and the eldest girl of about 13 was icarrying , the youngest. He watched them closely for some time, being much surprised to see them on the beach at that hour, but noticing nothing in connection with their conduct that would justify his interference, he did not speak to them. From this it would appear ; that Mrs. Chamberlain had, perhaps as a consequence of Iter delicate condition, fallen into a state of melancholy, and in the light of later events, she may have been contemplating the destruction of her children and taking her own lifo as well. December 30. Mrs. Chamberlain was the wife of Levi James Chamberlain, who is employed as a teamster iu the haulage of logs for Mcßurnie's sawmills at Picola West. The family consisted of father and mother, two sons and four daughters. There can be-little doubt that Mrs. Chamberlain must have been suffering'from mania, associated with her delicate condition, and perhaps assisted by a feeling of despondency at being away from her home at the Christmas season. In her melancholy brooding, with that strange contradiction of conduct and natural instinct which often characterises tho action of a woman in such circumstances, sho probably determined to do away with her children and herself. Her evident desire to avoid observation and her midnight wandering on the pier and along the shore point to a premeditated intention to carry out the promptings of a disordered mind. Opportunity would come in tho quiet and loneliness ■of tho early morning. The younger . children, overcome with sleep, would probably jbe unconscious victims ; as they were committed to tho waves, but it is not easy to assume that the eldest daughter could be drowned without a struggle. The respect and esteem with which Mr. Chamberlain is regarded in the district of Picola was evidenced by the cordial heartfelt sympathy with which ho was received by his friends, who could not do enough for him; He was literally overwhelmed with offers of assistance, both personal and monetary, if ho required it. "Thank you, friends," ho said quietly, " I'm afraid you can't help me now, my wife and little ones are dead and I'm not in need of money. Jessie dead?" lie murmured, looking inquiringly around as if to find a contradiction among the sympathetic faces surrounding him—" our little girls— dead? How oan it be? Why—" The poor fellow, with all his lusty strength, seemed crushed by tho weight of this terrible blow. He could not realise tho truth. Mr. Chamberlain's narrative was told with straightforward, honest simplicity. My wifo was 32£ years old," ho said. "She was a girl of 17 when sho married me, I and a tetter, truer, more loving wifo never lived. I can truthfully say that from our wedding day wo have never exchanged one angry word. She came from Bullarto, where her people live, and I am a native' of Trentham, where my father, mother, and three brothers arc. Till now I never visited Melbourne in my life, and my wife was never in tho city before. We know the country, and were satisfied with our lives. "My wife never displayed any tendency to madness. There was never any puerperal trouble attending the birth, of our children, but when Annie was born at Nathalia she contracted typhoid fever, but was never de-' lirious. At tho same time one of our boys was sick, and she was worn off her feet nursing him. From that time she looked forward to such periods with dread, and thought that she was physically not the samo woman since. She loved her children dearly, and I cannot understand it at all. She was quiet and home loving, and neither of us cared to go away much. This trip to Melbourne was arranged months ago, and had beer, looked forward to eagerly by herself and tho little girls. . It was fixed that they wiyo to spend a week or two in Melbourne, i and then go to Trontham to my father and mother, where sho . was ; intended to stay until her illness was overin fact, until the summer was over. On the night before tho 16ththat day they left home— wife was ; busy tidying up tho place, sorting out and , mending, the children's; clothes." . " ; The body of _ the fourth girl was subse- | quently found in the water at Port Mel- ;' b( ume. 'i I