BACKBLOCKS TRAGEDY

Southland Times, Issue 25310, 13 June 1935, Page 7

BACKBLOCKS TRAGEDY

HUSBAND AND WIFE FOUND DEAD. NOTE LEFT FOR POLICE. (Per United Press Association.) Whangarei, June 11. A tragedy’ occurred at Parakao, where Mrs Fraser Edwards, a young Maori woman, and her husband, Fraser Edwards, were found dead yesterday. Mr Fraser Edwards was a wellknown Maori. He was employed by Mr C. L. Brown, of Wilson’s Bridge, Parakao, in working timber. He did not attend his work yesterday morning, and Mr Brown sent his son Harry, aged 13, to make inquiries. The boy went to. a lonely hut near the Mangakahia river, where Edwards and his wife lived, but his call brought no response. Mr Brown then visited the hut. He looked through a window and saw that Mrs Edwards was lying on a bed. She was bleeding from a wound in the head. Her husband, who was in a far corner of the hut, was moaning, and was apparently very weak. A note addressed to the police was pinned on the door of the hut. The woman was dead, and the husband died later.