MURDER OR ACCIDENT?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 1

MURDER OR ACCIDENT?

INQUIRY INTO HIMATANGI FIRE TO RE-OPEN SENSATION EXPECTED From Our Own Correspondent PALMERSTON N., Friday. The inquiry Into the circumstances Surrounding the tragic fire in which eight people lost their lives at Himatangi on September 5 last, will be continued at Foxton on Tuesday, when the toroner, Mr. A. Fraser, will hear more than 20 witnesses. Owing to the suggestion of foul-play, »nd the sensational developments which followed the first discovery of the smoking ruins by tlie Maori shepherd, Kauri, unusual public Interest has been taken in the proceedings, and it is expected that important revelations will be made at the inquest which will go a long way toward Showing what actually happened in the loneiy whare in the Himatangi sandhills before the building burst into fames. That murder was committed is based on the discovery of the hole and lead in the skull of one of the victims. Whose skull this was, not even the medical men can say definitely, but it is considered fairly certain that it was that of either Wright or Thompson.

The suggestion that a shotgun was bred by an outsider lias been ruled ct’t, owing to the isolated position of •he whare and the impossibility of a ttranger finding it without direction from neighbours. Suspicion has, therefore. fallen on the inmates themselves, knd it is concerning the domestic rela- ’ unships of the four adult members of the household that the most valuable Information has been gained. ** * s confidently expected that from ,' 8 eT tdence given at tije inquest botli e police and the public will be able I® what most likely hapP bed on that fateful evening when woman, three men and four children “ le il a terrible death.