THE INQUEST ON CAPTAIN CAIN’S BODY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 769, 26 November 1886, Page 24

THE INQUEST ON CAPTAIN CAIN’S BODY.

VERDICT OF MURDER AGAINST

PERSONS UNKNOWN.

(united press association.) Timaru, November 18. The inquest on the body of Captain Cain was continued this morning before Mr J. S. Beswiok, Coroner. The following evidence was taken: -- Florence Gillon: I went on a visit to Woodlands on December 19 last. Captain Cain was taken ill on the Monday after I went there. Hall said a report was current in town that Captain Cain was not being fed properly. Miss Houston and Mrs Newton and I were present,andhe turned to Miss Houston, saying : Suppose you do it. Mrs Newton said that it would be impossible to manage in that way, as no one person could do it. Three or four weeks before Captain Cain’s death Hall said something to the effect that it was a pity when people were so ill as Captain Gain that the doctors could not give them something to put them out of the way to prevent them suffering so muoh. I know that Hall came back twice to stay all night at Woodlands. I asked Mrs Hall when I was at Coomstall in December, why nurse Peters had left. I think she replied to the effect that Mrs Peters had got it into her head that Hall was trying to poison her (Mrs Hall). Mrs Hall said Tom was always reading “Taylor on Poisons,” and she did not half like it. I have always heard Hall express the opinion that Captain Cain would not recover. Dr Mclntyre had told us the day before Captain Cain died that he might live three months longer. Captain Cain often talked to me about his symptoms. He could not account for his sickness. On Christmas afternoon I remember being with him when he was very sick. . I 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 that he was being poisoned. Emma Brignal Ostler, deposed : I remember dining at Woodlands the day before Captain Cain 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 the deceased said that it always made him sick, and he declined to take it. Hall then took the captain’s glass, and, taking it to the cupboard, poured something into it there. The glass was behind the cupboard and Hall was stooping down. He poured something into the glass, put it on the table, and added some water, placing the tumbler by the side of Captain Cain. Up to that moment the captain seemed quite well, and not sick at all. When the dinner was half over the captain began to retch violently, and had to be assisted from the room. Frederick LeCren deposed :I and Captain Cain were trustees under a settlement made on Mrs Hall’s behalf. On December 11 Captain Cain drove to my house when I was absent, and on the following he came to my office and told me he wished me to release the trust. I paid the trust money

on the 26th April. I knew that if Captain Cain had lived he would not have agreed to pay the money over voluntarily. Jowsey Jackson, blacksmith at Saltwater Creek: I remember an invalid chair being ordered from me on January 16th for Captain Cain, and at about 8 o’clock the same night Hall saw me about it, and told me to make the most speed possible. I finished it on the 25th, and took it to Woodlands. On that occasion Kay gave me half a tumbler of champagne, and I was very sick after drinking it. I am not subject to sickness, and had no other liqnor that day. Charles Blenheim Eichbaum, chemist in Timaru : Hall purchased from me in November half au ounce of atropia ; on January 29tb, half an ounce of eyedrops, which I took to be atropia. Atropia is a strong poison, the active principal of. bellodonna.

William Henry Willway deposed : Hall bought two shillings’ worth of colchicum wine on November 13th, 1885. George Kay, laborer, living in Timaru : I went to the late Captain Cain’s in January last to help to nurse him. Hall came to the house every day during the time I was there. He used to be alone with Captain Cain from 5 to 10 minutes, and I usually left the room. Hall told me several times to go out. Spirits were kept on a table in the sick-room with medicines. During a part of the time the Captain was often sick, but I cannot remember if the sickness came on after Hall's visits. I was in the house the night before Captain Cain died, and Hall was not there to my knowledge. Richard Bowen Hogg (re-called), said: Colchicum and atropia are both vegetable poisons. Sickness, similar to that described in the evidence, would be produced bycolchicum. It might be by atropia, but lam not quite sure. The Coroner said that he thought the jury would have little hesitation, after hearing the evidence of Dr Hogg, inarrivingat the conclusion that 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. He then referred to the evidence as it pointed to Hall being connected with the death of the deceased. The jury retired to consider their verdict at 3.15, and. returned at 3.45. The Foreman said the jury were of opinion that Captain Cain’s death was accelerated by poison, but by whom administered there was not sufficient evidence to show. They, therefore, returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.