OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2913, 12 January 1910, Page 69

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) MELBOURNE, January 5. A painful story of the burden which motherhood involves upon those in poor circumstances wais" unfolded during Christmas week about five miles from the little town of Dookie, in the NorthEastern district of Victoria. The central figure in the tragedy was a married woman named Lena Clugston, 40 years of age. She shot two of her children with a pea-rifle. She wounded two others (one of them has since died], and she then turned the rifle on herself with such effect that her death is now expected. The only account of the tragedy which can be given is that which can be gathered from the story of the daughter Rose, a little gill of nine, who is now in a critical condition. Mrs Clugston was the mother of eight children, but the four eldest were away from home. Of those at home. Rosie is the eldest. At about midday on Thursday last the mother, acting under some maniacal impulse, gathered the children together in a room. The father is a labourer, and at the time he was working away from home. She put a stock of cartridges in a handy place, and proceeded to load a pea-rifle. The first .shot she aimed at a little girl, Maggie, aged iseven. It pierced her heart, and she fell dead. She loaded again, and Violet, aged four, fell dead, also shot through the heart. Her daughter Rosie, shrieking with fear, was pulling at her mother's dress, but the mother shook her off, and fired at the baby, a little boy of two. Her hand was less steady now and the shot was not fatal, but the baby collapsed. She fired then at Rosie, but the poor child was struggling for her life, and though she was hit it was not in a vital part, and she ran out of the house screaming. She went 200 yards to a neighbour, Mrs O'Brien, and, panting out, " Something's up with mother," she swooned from loss of blood. Mrs O'Brien and her daughter ran to the house, and there found that Mrs Clugston had fired two shots into her own abdomen. She and the little baby were writhing on the floor, while close beside them lay the dead bodies of the two children.

The police and the doctors were telephoned for, and the mother and the two wounded children were conveyed to the Mooroopna Hospital. Next day the mother gave premature birth to another child which did not live. The wounded baby died in a couple of days; the life of the. mother seemed to be fast ebbing away, but she is now reported a shade better. Even the little girl Rosie, whose injuries were at first thought not to be serious, ha,s taken a serious turn, and her condition is critical. The doctor's examination showed that the woman was in a very impoverished condition from want of proper nourishment. She is apparently suffering from 1 puerperal mania, and when asked why she had done what she did only replied, " They forced me to do it."

Madame Melba has inaugurated a scheme for establishing a system of bush nurses. It is being supported in very influential quarters, and should receive much support from this terribly pathetic tragedy, for had this poor woman "been properly nourished the ghastly drama would probably never have been enacted. A FORLORN HOPE. That hope which "springs eternal in the human breast " has prompted another effort to find some trace of the missing steamer War at ah. There was .some dissatisfaction with the nature of the search made by the Sabine, and the announcement that no landing was effected at some of the southern islands " on account of the fog" created an impression that the search was of a perfunctory character. Apart from this, however, it is recognised that there is an immense area of sea to cover, and ma'nv experts are of ooinion that the vessel, if drifting, would go, not south, but in a northeasterly direction towards the north-west coast of Western Australia, entirely out of the track of shipping. Then there is the fact that no tracp of wreckage has ever been sighted—a . fact which is rather remarkable if the vessel is lost. A citizens' meeting was held in Melbourne to arrange for a second search. The idea was enthusiastically taken up, and it has been well supported since. The Commonwealth Government was approached, and though Sir John Quick (speaking for the Prime Minister, who was out of town) was not very definite, it is clear that the Government can be relied on for something. The Victorian Government has given £500; the New South Wales Government a like sum, South Australia £250, and Western Australia £2OO. Now Lund's Line has promised £IOOO, so that with the private subscriptions the amount in sight is practically £6OOO. The cost of fittingout a vesse.l is estimated at £7OOO, so that there is enough in hand to justify the chartering of the • vessel at once. Only one offer has been made, and it is to supply a vessel and crew only. This leaves the awkward question of coaling as the responsibility of the charterers, but it is believed, having regard to the mission of the vessel, no great difficulty j will arise over this matter. 1