DREADFUL TRAGEDY AT NAPIER.

Colonist, Volume XXVII, Issue 3856, 1 March 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

DREADFUL TRAGEDY AT NAPIER.

.) (Per Electric Telegraph.) ; ' ' ' February 11. j 1! A jsKbbJnng murder was coinmitteid yesterday at Ormondville, a settlement in, the Severity Mile Bush, on the Napier-Woodville. railway. A man named, Edwards had been on the spree, ' and in. his delirium cut tne ■. throats- of his wife and four children, and afterwards -attempted to cut his ■own throat;'1 but 'only■inflicted slight wounds.^ Edwards^ was arrested this morning1 and ■ taken to the Waipawa Co-unty Hospital,- where his wounds were dressed, and he was taken back to"prmondyille,fb'r the inquest to.be lielcl to-day 1 Edwards was a plate- • layer and addicted to drink. He has ;been twice, before the K.M. charged witli lunacy brought on by excessive drinking, and had' been discharged fi^bni tile : Asyliiin on medical'certificates. . .•'' ' : ,'. .• '„. ... : :- '•'"■■ '"' ; ■"," -... . '. ' Later. Edwards, although conscious, keeps a strict silence. The appearance: of •the^ropm, in"'which tne bodies lay, tells'the tale only too truly. Three of the 'four' children went to' church on Sunday' evening, the mother staying at home to nurse the baby. On their return, they went to bed, and the mother lay .down dressed on the bed awaiting for her husband. When he returned, it would seem from a heap of chips'at orie corner, he took a half charred log from the fire, and, with his pocket knife, cooly cut one end into the shape of a handle. He must then have stunned his wife, and children as they lay on the bed. The foreheads of all being cut and bruised. ' The wife's . throat was then cut on the bed. From the enormous quantity of blood in the middle of the floor, on the murderer's trousers, and on a chair, it appears that he lifted the children from the bed, and taking them between 1 his knees one by one-and cut their throats also. He placed tliem again on the bed, their arms' twined about- each other. Probably he then cut: his own throat, but not' deeply. The tragedy must have occurred before midnight or early in the morning. Before daylight he went to the house of a neigh bor named Plank and asked for water; Plank says he had a presentment that all was not fight, and he refused the water, and when Edwards went away Plank followed him with a loaded gun ■; but soon lost him in the darkness. Edwards next called at another neigh-: bor's named 1 Pyke, and there got water. It being dark, Pyke saw no blood, but Edwards' manner was so| strange that Pyke became uneasy, and went and aroused the local constable.. They .went to Edwards' house and there ' discovered the horrible truth.1 At daylight Edwards was found on; the trestles of a high bridge, from which he threatened to jump, but he was ultimately secured with great difficulty. He was. taken, to the Waipukurau hospital to have, his, wounds dressed,, and he, is not in danger. Edwards is a iiian of some education,; and is a practical engineer. For someyears he was chief engineer on, one' of the coastal steamers, but .was discharged for drunkenness. He received: remittances from home, his friends being well connected, and a short time since he received £1000, with which; he bought land at Ormondville. He! was given to drinking, and when' drunk was like a madman.. .Twice he has been charged with being a lunatic and kept in confinement until the effects of his drinking bout passed off.: It has transpired that when drunk he: has more.,than once severely assaulted; his • wife, '■ and ■a' short time sinee 1 he placed a quantity of gunpowder under his wife's Joed, and exploded it, for- ■ tunately without any serious damaged