DOUBLE MURDER AND SUICIDE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2473, 7 March 1893, Page 4

DOUBLE MURDER AND SUICIDE.

A telegram from Western Australia says that a terrible tragedy is reported from Northampton. William' Charles Glass, aged about fifty, a squatter, long resident in the district, shot two of his grown-up daughters dead and then killed himself. Mr Glass was a welleducated intelligent man, and the chairman of the Korhampton Hoad Board. He leaves a wife and a large family. It appears that Lucy Glass told her father that a young man named Thomas Brown with whom she was keeping company, was coining to take her away to get married on Tuesday morning. Glass thereupon expressed strong disapproval of the match and got into a great rage. his daughter Lucy and her sister Nellie went to a well, which is situate about quarter of a mile from the house, to which spot Glass followed them with a gun and shot them both through the head. The murderer then wrote a note, which he addressed to his son Janies, saying he was going to take poison, bidding him good-bye, and telling him not to be broken-hearted as his father had been. He then went into ambush alongside the road, waiting for Brown, but on a man named Shea coming up Glass apparently took him for a co Stable and shot himself. Shea thougat Glass had fired at him, so he ran away. Next morning he wont to the place with a double-barrelled gun and saw the murderer dead with a bullet wound in his forehead. A letter was found in Glass’s pocket addressed to the authorities, which said he had shot his daughters Lucy and Ellen to prevent Lucy marrying the biggest rowdy in Northampton, T. Brown, who was not only a prison bird but had a mother and five sisters of disreputable character. The coroner’s Jury found Glass guilty of fdo de se. There was a terrible scene in Court at the inquest, the relatives and friends of the deceased being greatly affected. At the funeral of the murdered girls the remains were followed by a large g umber of people. The two coffins were placed in oho grave in the Church of England Cemetery, The funeral of the father took place in the evening, the same people attending it. The remains w,erp buried in the lowest part of the Cemetery, and no funeral service except the Lord's prayep was read over the body. It is said that fylaas was an atheist, always ridiculed religion, and would not allow any of his family to be eliimeperl. In many ways, however, he was an hou.oyrable and proud-spirited man. He iirafc utame to the colony twenty eight years ago as manager of the Geraldine mines, but for several years had been engaged in squatting pursuits. Ho waa intensely fond of his children, and though h<3 Would never do a mean action he was revengeful and frequently asserted that his creed was) “ T*ro eyes for an eye and two teeth for a tooth.