FIRE MYSTERY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19915, 18 April 1939, Page 6

FIRE MYSTERY

PIHA BACH BLAZE

AUSTRALIANS IN COURT TWO CHARGES LAID LOWER COURT HEARING KEEN PUBLIC INTEREST (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. The hearing of joint charges against two Australians, Gordon Robert 'McKay, aged 47, alias T6m Bowlands, a wool and skin dealer, and James Arthur Talbot, aged 43, a labourer, was begun in the Police Court to-day before Mr. C. R. OrrWalker. They are charged that, on or about February 12, at Film, they wilfully set lire to a dwelling house owned by Frank Carew-Thomas, thereby committing the crime of arson, and, .further, that on or about February 10, they improperly interfered With a dead human body, that of Patrick Henry Shine. Interest in the hearing is intense, hundreds of people waiting outside the court from an early hour hoping to gain admission. Forty witnesses are briefed, and the hearing is expected to last two days.

There was a hush in the crowded court when the names of McKay and Talbot were called. Detective-Sergeant Nalder prosecuted, Mr. R. C. J. Sanderson appeared for 'McKay, and Mr. J. Terry for Talbot.

Camera Hearing Refused

Mr. Terry asked that ail witnesses, with the exception of DetectiveSergeants Aplin and Trethewey and also Detective-Sergeant Alford, of Sydney, be ordered to remain out of court. The request was granted. ■Mr. Terry made a further application which, he said, might be an unusual one, namely, that the magistrate invoke powers under the Justices of the Peace Act concerning the place where the examination is taken other than in open court. He asked that publication of the evidence at the preliminary inquiry be prevented.

The magistrate declined the request. The first witness, Gertrude Eleanor Sturt, a nurse at the Auckland Public Hospital, said that Shine was admitted on January 7 last and died on the morning of February 8. He was thin and emaciated. She laid him out after death. He had no teeth in when he died. A large quantity of cotton wool was used on that account in plugging the mouth.

Evidence of Brother

Cecil Bertie Shine, retired, gave evidence that his brother, Patrick Henry Shine, was 54. He served in the Great War with the 38th Battalion of the Australian Forces. Immediately before the funeral, which he attended, he saw the body of his brother in a casket and witnessed the screwing down of the lid. He saw the casket lowered into the grave and saw the grave-diggers commence to fill in the grave. Before his dead) his brother was very thin and emaciated.

“I have never seen a man so thin he added.

Stephen Walter Tilton, a funeral director, corroborated that he noticed a string of rosary beads with a cross attached round the neck of Shine's body. (Fie could not say if the ring on the finger screws with which he screwed the lid were the same as those produced by Detective-Sergeant Nalder. There was no clay in the casket then. (He saw the casket buried in the Catholic portion Of the soldiers and sailors’ section of the Waikumete cemetery. Talk in Cemetery

Charles Caradus Tyler, monumental mason, said he remembered the burial of two returned soldiers, Shine and Cherry, on February 9. With others he was working close to Cherry’s grave. Detective-Sergeant Nalder: Did anyone approach you? Witness: Yes, a man came from the main gate and approached me. Detective-Sergeant Nalder: Do you know that man? Can you see him in court?

Witness, pointing to the accused McKay: Yes, he is that man.

Detective-Sergeant Nalder: Did McKay .speak to you?

Witness: Yes; he asked “Where is the soldier being .buried to-day?" I said “Which one?” He said, “Are there two?” I said, “This is Cherry's, The other is being buried this afternoon. I indicated each grave to him The magistrate: Was Shine’s name mentioned? Witness: No. . Detective-Sergeant Nalder: Was there any other conversation? Witness: No, except that he made a remark about it being a nice day. Witness said he attended an identification parade at the Central Police Station on April 15. From a number of men lined up, he identified McKay as the man who talked to him at Waikumete.

Double Rooms Occupied

Maud Selina May Bischop, gave evidence that she let rooms at her house in Hardinge street. A man named Jones called on February (3 with the accused T»libot and McKay, stating that they had just arrived by boat. They took a double room with two beds for a. week at £1 weekly. Talbot who paid, asked if there was any rebate, if they did not stop a week. Witness replied in the negative. Mm Kay was not present when Talbo. asked that question.

On .Saturday morning, February 11, McKay had his teeth out. Sim made him .bread and auilk. and took it into his roam. He said they were going to Pilia. Talbot would be returning but he, McKay, would not, They did not see McKay again until the other day She saw Talbot on the Sunday a filer when .Tones brought him back. Detective-Sergeant Nalder: Was anything said?

Witness: Mr. Jones told me about the iflre and said a gentleman had been burnt. He was very upset and so was I, witness added. Talbot, who said nothing, then continued to stop at her place talcing .the room upstairs.

Wilfrid Guild Lowrie, a customs clerk, produced documentary evidence o.f tthe arrival of McKay and Talbot by the Mariposa on February 0. The hearing is proceeding.