A SERIOUS CHARGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5904, 23 June 1897, Page 3

A SERIOUS CHARGE.

TPer Press Association.!

INVERCAEGILL, June 22.

A sensation was caused here yesterday by the arrest of Richard Williamson Hall, solicitor, on a charge of procuring a medical man, Dr Torrance, of Campbelltown, to administer and cause to be taken by one Caroline Mathews, wife of another solicitor, a certain poison or noxious thing, with intent to procure miscarriage. The offence is alleged to have been committed as far back as October, 1895. Mrs Mathews, who has been living apart from her husband for several years, was also charged with unlawfully . jjermitting the poison to- ; be administered to Her. Through counsel, when brought "before the Court, she desired to state that Hall had nothing to do with the matter of which he is accused. . Both were remanded for a week on bail; Hall in £1000, Mrs Mathews £600. , The woman was left with several children practically destitnte, and was largely dependent on the benevolence of ladies. Her husband recently returned to Invercargill, but is not living with her. Hall is a member of a firm who are solicitors for shareholders who have moved the Supreme Court for the examination of the officials of the J. G. Ward Farmers' Association, which comes off next month in Dunedin. A similar case is spoken of, the clue to which is said to have beeu obtained from letters written' by one woman to another, and which the latter lost in a bag on the railway. The bag is said to have been sold in the usual course by the Department, and being purchased by a woman at the Bluff she disclosed the contents to others, and the letters came into the bands of the police.