THE LATE INFANTICIDE CASE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XIX, Issue 2176, 7 March 1865, Page 3

THE LATE INFANTICIDE CASE.

' CONFESSION OF GRIFFITHS. '.

i We recently published the confession of the " girl Hamling, in which she threw the principal 1 share of the blame on Mrs Griffiths. Since ; then the latter has spontaneously made a statement, the substance of which is as under. It differs materially from the other on several '• points. The mother is alleged to have been cognisant of the birth, while Hamliog is stated to have concealed the infant's body, and carried it ill a basket to the place where it was left. Griffiths says, — About 6 o'clock on Tuesday i morning, 7th February, Nodder told me some one wns calling me outside. I got up and went to the door in my night clothes and saw Eliza Hamling. She said, "Do he sharp and come to our house, Mother's bad." I said I would go as soon as I was dressed. Lizzie sat down on a small hay cock belougiug to Giles Yeoman and waited fur me, and we went together to her father's house : he was nailing up some boaids ; when he saw us he said, " what is all this to-do about." I said I don't kuow. Ham- • ling said, " Lizzie has been bad all night, she has had the spasms and cramps in her legs, and I have beon giving her pepper for it. I have had no sleep all night for her and her mother." Lizzie then shivered and trembled. I said I don't think it is the spasms, you had belter give her some gin and water. He then gave her mother a shilling, and she fetched some gin, and I poured some out into a cup for Lizzie. Just then my little boy came and said I was to go home and get Nodder's breakfast and his dinner ready for him to take to his work, as he wanted wailing on as well as other people. I went home, and whila we were at breakfast Mrs Hamling came to the back of the house and cooed for me ; I didn't go, and then she came up to the fence and called me. Nodder said I should not go until I had done my breakfast and given him his dinner. I did what he told me and then went out. Mrs Hamling was waiting for me. When we got to her house Mr Hamling was just going to work.' Soon after he left I thought I heard a baby cry, and Lizzie called me. I and her mother weut into the bed-room where she was, together. She was sitting on the floor in a corner of the room. As soon as she saw her mother she said " What do you want, mother ? you go away, there is nothing the matter with me 1 " From what I saw on the floor I thought she was going to have a child. Her mother went out and I went to light my pipe, and while I was away doing it, Lizzie called me again. I asked her mother to give me a pair of scisssors and some thread, and directly I did so, she took up a knife and said, Oh ! what shall I do ; what shall I do. 1 will take my life. Is there another child? Do you think there is one. It will drive her father mad. What shall I do? what shall I do? She had one be fore, and now here is another." I took the knife from her; and pacified her, and as soon as she was a little quiet, I went into the bedroom. Lizzie was still in the corner, where I bad left her. I said, I don't think you will have it yet. She said I have got it, here it is. And she then moved away a little, and shewed me a baby. It was partly covered with a blue shirt, but I saw its face and it was crushed. There was a pillow lying close beside it. I did not see it when I iirst went in with her mother. I think she must have been sitting on it when she told me she delivered herself whilel was gone home. Lizzie then said, you get mother out of the way while I get rid of the baby. Its dead. T went out and sent her mother to Scott's, in Willis-street, for some oatmeal, and directly she was gone Lizzie got up and tried to carry the child into the room, but could not. She then walked into the room and I carried it to her. She knelt down and unlocked her box, which stood under the window, and we put the b'iby in it. Her mother came home almost directly. She was away a very short time. Lizzie was sitting on the bed when she came in. Mrs Hamling took away all her dirty clothes and washed her, and put her to bed, and I fetched her some clean clothes from my own house, On Thursday afternoon she came to my house and said sle was all of a tremble, she did not know what to do with the child and she was afraid her father would find it out, as it was beginning to smell. I said if I was you I should tell my father, and get him to bury it in the garden somewhere. She said she was afraid, and began to stamp up and down the room, but after a little while she went home. On Friday about half-past one she came to my house with a basket. Harrington's girl was there at the time. I asked her what she bad in it, and she said she had newspapers and letters and asked me to go with her to post them. I agreed to go as I wanted to have my likeness taken, and we went out together. As we were going along, she told me she had the ba,by in the basket. I said whatever shall we do with it in the broad daylight. She said, let us lake it round by the Powder Magazine round the rocks. We did so. When we got to the point she sat down on the rocks, and I took the baby and laid it down in Evans' Bay between two rocks. I put a big stone at the head and another at the feet. It was in the Jpillowease when I took it out of the basket. It was a white round basket with one handle. It was bought at Scott's in Willis-street, and belonged to her mother. That was not the basket tbat was produced at the trial. I have always been telling her to clear me, ever since I have been in gaol, by telling the truth. And when she was being 1 tried I kept pulling her frock and telling her to clear me, but she would not, and I have got two years for doing her a kindness. This is the truth, every word of it; it is as true as that thero is a God in Heaven, and Lizzie and her mother both know it. I do not know that her mother ever saw the baby, but she knew all about everything just as I have said. If she had got off I would never have said a word about it for the sake of her mother. When we were going out of the Court I flew at her, and I think I should have pulled her to pieces if the turnkeys' had not took me away. I couldn't help it, for I was almost mad to think she could have got me off if she would only have told the truth ; and although I kept on telling her to do it, she would not.