WIFE MURDER AND SUICIDE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXI, Issue 2309, 13 January 1866, Page 8

WIFE MURDER AND SUICIDE.

On ISTew Year's night while the merr3 r -makcrs were hieing ho. no, and iu many a family j circle the close of the first day of the new J year was being celebrated with joyous festi- ' vities, a terrible tragedy occurred at a house near Pi pi lea Point, where a wife's throat was cut by l.er husband, and the latter closed an act of murder by attempted suicide. The story as elicited from the evidence is horrible in its simplicity. Thomas Walker, I who for the last ten years has resided in the Itangitikei district, came a Few months ago to Wellington, and with his wife toolc up his residence in an iron house near Pipitea Point. The ill-fated couple had for a lengthened, period been most unhappy in their married life. The husband bore the ! character of a hard working industrious man, while it is guid that tllC- Vrit'e noglected her '""•"*-' Jiutics, indulged in the society of other men, and was more or less addicted to drinking. It is clear that Thomas Walker was rendered miserable by his wife's misconduct, and that mainly through it, lie left Rangitikei. There were several quarrels between the unhappy couple, and Walkerhad becu summoned to the Police Court for the purpose of compelling him to maintain his wife. Thus matters went on till that fatal Monday, the lirst of January. The woman leaving her husband at home, went out iu the morning to seek a day's pleasure. She was seen at the Caledonian Games during different hours of the day, when she appeared to be sober ; but about ten o'clock at nght, when met near her home, she was intoxicated, and in the company of a man named Joseph Geary. She was going home then, and appears to have reached the house soon afterwards, to meet her doom. There is no direct evidence as to the murder — except that of Walker's second daughter, a little girl seven years of age, who says that her father cut her mother's throat with a razor — but from other testimony it is clear that a quarrel took place the moment Mrs. Walker reached the house The woman was intoxicated — so much so as to abuse and strike her husband — bnt the latter so long as their neighbor, Mrs. Lowe, was present, did not retaliate. Mrs. Lowe says that when she left the house to meet her own husband, Walker was perfectly sober, though some days previously he had been drinking. With Airs. Lowe's departure the crisis of the trnfft»<ly npprouchcu. Between eleven and half past eleven o'clock, the bloody deed must have been consummated. There is evidence of the husband's dissatisfaction at his wife's absence during the whole of the day ; of her return and the quai'rel with her husband ; of her abuse and striking him, with that melancholy climax told by the daughter of sjven years old — " My father beat my mother, took a razor out of her workbaaket, and cut her throat. He then put the nzor do.vn, but in a while took it up again, and cut his own throat." Thus for the time ended this domestic tragedy. Stretched ou their faces side by side, the woman quite dead, and the man seriously wounded by his own hand — lay the uufortunate couple, while their children almost naked, were running for assistance. Soon a few neighbors came ; the police followed, and medical assistance was procured. But Mary Ann Walker had gono to her account, and only her husband could be saved. Everything that medical skill could suggest was done ou the spot aud the man novr lies in the hospital, with a prospect of recovering, only to stand iu a felon's dock, aud be tried for Wilful Murder. The evidence given at the Coroner's inquest could not have had an}' other result. There is no reason to suppose that any other person had anything whatever to do with tho tragedy except Walker ; there is nothing to favor the theory that tho woman committed suicide. In fact, that is put altogether out of the question, by the written document left behind by the murdei'er, wherein he Bays, " that he has been obliged to commit the deed he had done; through his wife's misconduct." There is something very extraordinary in the after circumstances. Ou Tuesday morning when Inspector Atcheson wont to see Walker in the hospital, the wounded man lying speechless in the ward, signed for writing materials, and on these being supplied, wrote down directions where a paper would be found which ho wished given to Mr. Ward. Mr. Ateheson, it should be said, warned him that any declaration he made, or information he supplied, I would afterwards be used against him, but I Walker, nevertheless, wrote the instructions he could not speak. The paper was [ found in the place indicated. It was a certificate, dated Bth December, 1865, signed by nine Itangitikei Settlers, stating " that Thomns Walker had been an iudus trious settlor in the district for several years, that he had possessed some little laud, and that ho had been obliged to leave through the misconduct of his wife." On the same paper Walker had written without date, the following statement :— " This is to certify that I am obliged to commit the deed that I have done : and through her gross misconduct to mo, I have dono it : and I hope you will take my children, aud never cast up to them tho deed that I have done." The question at once arises : — When was this latter statement written? Was it added to the other paper— signed by the Rangitikei settlers, and dated December Bth, 1865, — at the time, or shortly aiterwards ? Again, j was it written after the murder of his wife, and before tho attempt at suicide? If it were written some time ago, the case wears a very ugly aspect. If a man gets a document drawn out and signed by his neighbours, stating that he has been driven from his home and compelled to sacri*

fico Ill's property, through the misconduct of his wife, and afterwards adds that he has been compelled to do a particular deed — secretes that document aud then cuts the throat of his wife, and his own— the case would appear to a jury as if the murder aud suicide had been premeditated. On the other hand, Walker may have <rot the document prepared and signed in .Ranuilikei to produce in evidence if his wife took any proceed in<:.s against him for maintainance, aud the writing relative to the committal of the murder may have been added as his wife lay dead in the back room, and before he applied the razor to his own throat. We will not pursue such speculations further, because Walker is likely to recover, and may shortly have to stand his trial, when all the circumstances will be carefully sifted and justice done. Wo would not willingly say one single word to prejudge the case of this unhappy man, who3e deed, however heinous, seems to have been perpetrated under circumstances of the most serious provocation. In every respect tho tragedy of Monday night is a most lamentable affair. Feeling tho deepest horror of the deed, yet we cannot altogether shut out a feeling of pity for its I supposed perpetrator. Driven from Eangitikci by the misconduct of the woman now dead, and ag;iin harrasscd by her in Wellington, Thomas Walker thought to cut short his difficulties by a terrible crime, and a selfinflicted expiation.

Up till Friday morning, tho sbh inst., it was probable that the Avretuhed man would recover, but at one o'clock ho had a relapse, and died on the following day. Late on Friday evening wo visited the room in which he lay, and then it was apparent that death could not bo fav distant. Tho wretched man was placed in a halfsitting half-reclining attitude upon a stretcher in the far comer of tho room. His head, b inclagcd 1 up in a white cloth, was sunk upon his bosom j and his knees drawn up, as if spasmodically almost to his chin, His eyes wore shut, but every now and then the lids contracted, and u shudder seemed to shake his whole frame. He flcdmed to j draw his breath with thii greatest difficulty, and ! iincilt l'l^pii'iltion was accompanied by a bubbling gurgling sound, as if ho were in the last agonies of suffocation. We heard from the person in t charge of him that during the time of his being in hospital, he had not spoken, but that until tho morning of his relapse he had. appeared quite conscious, and gave symptoms of pleasure- at seeing the Bishop of Wellington, and other members of the clergy who visited him daily and read and prayed for him. An inquest was held at the Hospital at 3 o'clock on Saturday after noon, before Dr. Boor and a respectable jury on view of the body, when, after a short deliberation, a verdict was returned to the effect that the dej ceased Thomas Walker had committed suicide on the Ist January when in a state of unsound mind. Thus ends the last act of the terrible tragedy enacted on New Year's Day, but ere taking leave of the subject wo must express a hope that the good Samaritans of this city will take into consideration tho destitute condition of the orphan children, and think them objects worthy of their charity.