THE TRAGEDY IN AUCKLAND LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 4465, 6 October 1883, Page 2

THE TRAGEDY IN AUCKLAND LUNATIC ASYLUM.

FURTHER PARTICULARS,

|_PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.J The following particulars regarding the Lunatic Asylum tragedy have transpired : — The occurrence happened, not in a cell, but in the day-room in the east end of the building, which, although it contained beds, is used as a breakfast and dining-room for the dang3rouß patients. Forty-two men usually dino in the room who cannot be trusted with a knife and fork or spoon. They are supplied with what is called spoon diet, that is, the potatoes are mashed and meat chopped up. Owing to special instructions regarding Gschnell he was the last admitted into the breakfast room where all the others were seated. There were four attendants present at breakfast, and Hardy, the head warder, made a personal inspection at 8 o'clock and found all right. Gschnell was not even sitting at the same table with Mills. There was a table between them, and so far as could be gathered no communication passed between them. They sat at the extreme corners. The duty of the attendant, McArdy, who had charge of the ward, was to sco the ward cleared out and patients sent into the airing court, and tho place locked up before he went to breakfast. Ho says he cleared Mills nnd GschnoH out with other patients, and locked the place up; but tho difficulty is to reconcile this with the facts \\ hich occurred. McArdy has been suspended, pending the result of the inquest. The tragedy occurred in the day room, which was supposed to bo locked, and yet Mills and tho Austrian must have been there.

The assault was committed at the extreme end of the ward, in a pnssage 6 feet wide, on one side of which were the attendants room, the outlet being to the airing court. Gschnell apparently picked up a heavy deck scrubber broom used for scrubbing the oil-cloth in the passages, and followed up his victim, struck him violently on the back of the head, fracturing his skull, and smashing the brush off at the handle. He then began to belabor his victim with the handle. A patient named Edwin Jolly avers that he saw the assault, and states distinctly that he saw Gschnell break the scrubber over Mills' head, and then belabor him with the handle.

Gschnell, when asked why he attacked Mills, says it was to prevent his swearing. He is quite coherent, except when the conversation turns on his homicidal tendencies.