THE WANGANEI TRAGEDY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2363, 8 June 1899, Page 19

THE WA NGANEI TRAGEDY.

FOUND GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER,

AUCKLAND, June 1

At the Supreme Court to-day, Robert Howson, an old m.n, 77 yeais of age, with grey head and beard, was placed in the dock and indicted that on the 10th March last, at Whangaiei, he did murder Robert Fuller. The Crown Prosecutor said the prisoner, Fuller, and another old man named Downie ■were living in the same cottage. He detailed how the body was found in the cottage, and also the circumstances of the police finding a tomahawk with blood stains on it behind the kitchen The case is proceeding

May 2,

Robert Howson, charged with the murder of his mate, Robert Fuller, at Whangarei, on March 10, was found, guilty of manslaughter. Howson is 77 years of age. In sentencing the prisoner, Judge Conolly said it was cumcult to deal with a case of this kind. The recommendation of the jury had saved him from the necessity of passing the only sentence possible in the case of murder. The case approached nearly to murder, and the jury would have been justified if they had returned a verdict of murder. The man whom the prisoner had killed evidently angered him by waking him from a sleep, and the prisoner then struck him down. When he had got him down

it would have been sufficient to have taken the tomahawk from him. He would pass the full sentence allowed for manslaughter — imprisonment for life.