THE WAITARA MURDER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10104, 23 March 1909, Page 4

THE WAITARA MURDER.

DR TRTJBY KING'S REMARKABLEADDRESS. (Otago Daily Times' Correspondent.) Wellington, March 22. The special correspondent of the Post, telegraphing from Xew Plymouth to-day, says:—The la6t scene in the Uoode murder trial.was one of the most- extraordinary ever witnessed in a- court of law. The central figure was Dr Trubv King, of Seacliff Mental Hospital. On "his evidence the case for the Crown rested. Dr King stepped into the -witness box with a huge portmanteau' of books. Then be entered into a long, masterly dissertation on mental diseases. The Crown Prosecutor, in an hour and a-half, asked only three questions. Counsel for the defence asked only two in three-quarters of an hour. Through all that time the witness, more in the manner of the professor lecturing to a class of .students, than even an expert in the box, continued to pour forth what was admitted afterwards by the medical men present to be an absolute masterpiece of scientific exposition. Nothing like it had been heard before. The doctor quoted eminent authorities in England, Scotland, and Oermany. When the Crown Prosecutor suavely interposed suggestions that the prisoner though insane had knowledge of the quality and nature of the fatal deeds, witness with an impatient sweep of the arm brushed the question asido. "Words," he cried, "are the coins of fools, but the counters of wise men." He declared that the prisoner was not only legally but medically insane. He explained the change of attitude due to reading the evidence reported in the newspapers. "When 1 read the reports," he said, "I think I am reading a text-hook, not a newspaper." It was extraordinary. Dr King was judge, jury, and court. He was given a hearing extending over two hours, practically ;ui uninterrupted hearing, and when he bad finished his evidence, the judge was satisfied, and intimated that- the jury need not leave the box. It is impossible to convey the intensity of the scene. Imagine the lean, scholarly figure in the box two hours and a-half unravelling the intricacies of medical science in language of the utmost accuracy and purity, and the listening court. It was a- memorable scene. By his amazing evidence Dr King changed the case, and brought about tho acquittal oi the prisoner. Nothing else is talked about in New- Plymouth now, and the last scene in the trial, with the figure and elocpionee of the last witness, will long endure in tho memories of those present in court at the time.