DOUBLE SHOOTING

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1935, Page 9

DOUBLE SHOOTING

TRAGEDY AT WELLINGTON PROPRIETOR OF THE ROYAL OAK. FOUND DEAD IN ROOM WITH WIFE. POLICE HAVE TO FORCE THE DOOR By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. James. Alfred Duncan, licensee of the Royal Oak Hotel, Wellington, and his wife were found shot dca- in their.room at the hotel shortly after 6 a.m. to-day. It was customary for Mr. Duncan to take the keys of various bars and cellars with him’when he retired, as a rule about midnight. He did this on Saturday night. Following instructions a porter knocked at Mr. Duncan s door at, 6 a.m. to-day to get the keys in the usual way, but could obtain no response. As this was most unusual he became alarmed and advised the police. They tried the door and as it could not be opened from outside, having been locked inside, the porter offered to get into the room by one of the outside windows. This he was successful in doing, and he found both Mr. and Mrs. Duncan dead with a revolver lying beside them. News of the double tragedy to the licensee of one of Wellington’s leading hotels came as a shock to many in the city, particularly to those who knew Mr. Duncan intimately. There is evidence that the tragedy was enacted at about 3.25 a.m., as at that time police officers on duty at James Smith’s corner are reported to have heard- shots or sounds they took to be shots. They were at once on the alert, but on investigating in the neighbourhood they found everything quiet. James Smith’s corner is 60 or 70 yards away from the Dixon Street side of the Royal Oak Hotel. People and servants living in the hotel were, it is believed, not disturbed by the shots. Mr. Duncan, a man about 55-years of age, was a son of Mr. James Duncan, a celebrated whip in the old coaching days of Otago and later proprietor of the Empire Hotel at Palmerston, in the South Island, where Mr. Duncan was born. After some experience of hotel management in the south Mr. Duncan went to Australia and at different times was manager of The Mansions in Bayswater Road, Sydney, and was afterward in the Carlton and the Wentworth Hotels in the same city. He came to Wellington about 18 months ago and took over the management of the Royal Oak Hotel at Christmas, 1933. Mrs. Duncan also came from Palmerston South. Mr. and Mrs. Duncan leave one son, Mr. Leonard Duncan, who is manager •of a motor tyre business at Launceston, Tasmania, and one daughter, Miss Duncan, Wellington. Mr. Duncan has a brother, Mr. Edgar Duncan, residing at Sydney, and Mr. A. Duncan, a wellknown bowler belonging-to the Wellington Club, is a cousin. '