THE WELLINGTON TELLER AND THE DENTIST.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1017, 18 May 1880, Page 2

THE WELLINGTON TELLER AND THE DENTIST.

It is reported on good authority thai the Executive Council of New South hat decided to liberate Bertrand. the dentist, who some fifteen years ago, was sentenced to death for the murder ol Mr. Henry Kinder, the paying tellei of the City Bank of Sydney. Mr. Kind' er had been well and favourabls known as a bank official in Wellington and therefore his tragic end caused con' siderable excitement in this colony « well in Australia. The case was surrounded by so many strange details (says the Dunedin Star) as to appeal almost like the lucubrations of some agony writer in a " penny diabolical.' Mr. Kinder resided near Sydney, in the beautiful and romantic suburb of St, Leonards, North Shore. Bertrand anc Kinder were on visiting terms. Kindei had left New Zealand in debt, and threats of legal proceedings caused hiir to become so downcast that he eventually had to obtain leave of absence from hif banking duties. A few days ago it wai bruited about Sydney that Kinder hac been shot in the side of the head accid entally but that under thejof Dr. Eichlei a leading medical practitioner in Sydney he was rapidly recovering. Ther came the announcement of Kinder! death. An inquest was held, and t verdict of accidental death returned. Bui now comes the strangest part o: the affair. A person named Jackson

formerly a squatter in New Zealand, who had> been one of Mrs. Kinder's particular friends, and of whom Kinder was very jealous, had well-nigh ruined himself in Sydney, and wrote a "lengthy letter to Bertrand, in which he threatened that if Bertrand did not give him enough money to pay for a passage back to New Zealand, a charge would bo made by him against Bertrand for murdering Kinder. Bertrand at once handed this letter to the police, and Jackson was arrested and sentenced to \ penal servitude by Judge Hargreaves for sending a threatening letter. Through some divulgences made at and after the trial, Bertrand was suspected of carrying on a liaison with Mrs. Kinder, and, eventually, through some other statements made to the police, Bertrand, Mrs. Bertrand, and Mrs. Kinder were arrested and charged with murdering Mr. Kinder. Bertrand only was put upon liis trial. The jury on bi;ing called upon for their verdict were ;it first equally divided ; on a final division, some hours subsequently, there were nine for acquittal and three for guilty. The jury was then discharged, and Bertrand was again tried. Between the date of the first and second trials a most diabolical rumor was generally circulated to the effect that Bertrand had been guilty of fearful secret crimes whilst prosecuting his profession as a dentist, and that a diary in his hand-writing fully detailing these crimes had been discovered by the police. This horrible and improbable rumor obtained very general belief, and when the second trial came off Bertrand was found guilty and sentenced to death by Sir Alfred Stephen. An arrest of judgment was applied for by Mr. Julian Salaman, then a rising member of the Bar, who, being of the same faith as the prisoner, had a double incentive to exercise all his skill and eloquence. The full court, by a majority, permitted an appeal to the Privy Council on the ground that the judge at the second trial had acted illegally in readidg his notes taken from the first trial of the witnesses' evidence to them as they were aworn. Sir Alfred Stephen was much hurt at this, and stated that he taken this course in order to save time, and with the consent of the Crown, the counsel for the prisoner, and the prisoner himself. Mr. Salaman at once retorted — " Then an ignorant judge, weak and incompetent council, and a trembling prisoner can upset the whole of the English laws." This quite electrified the Court, and Mr. Salaman gained his point. The Privy Council, while condemning the action of Sir Alfred, upheld the conviction, but the Executive Council remitted the sentence of death to that of imprisonment for life, Avhich is usually considered, in New South Wales, to mean, in the case of a well-conducted prisoner, imprisonment for fifteen years, which time has now expired. The proofs of the guilt of Bertrand were very faulty, and now the general belief is that Bertrand was entirely guiltless of Kinder's death. But there is a strong suspicion still that his conduct towards Mrs. Kinder may have indirectly deprived hee of her husband. At all events, he has paid the penalty of such an offence. In New South Wales all prisoners undergoing a sentence of from three years upwards serve the first nine months in strict solitary confinement in that horroi of criminals, Berrima gaol. Bertrand under this treatment went insane, and was for about six years an inmate of the Criminal Lunatic Asylum in Paramatta ; and Mr. Salaman, who so cleverlj pleaded for an " arrest of judgment,' ako went mad shortly after obtaining the order for an appeal to the Privy Council, and, a few years ago, Dr. Eichler, the Surgeon who attendee Kinder, became similarly afflicted.