HAURAKI TRAGEDY.

Western Star, 10 February 1922, Page 3

HAURAKI TRAGEDY.

MURDER AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.

WOMAN SHOT BY HER

PARAMOUR,

THAMES, February 8,

It was reported to the police yesterday afternoon, that a tragedy had occurred near Pipiroa, Hauraki Plains. The police and a doctor proceeded by launch. Near a little hut, /standing.! back from the road), they found a man, Arthur William Page, aged thirty-nine, lying with a gaping wound in the left breast. In the cottage lay Airs Gladys Hutchinson, aged thirty, shockingly wounded. Her right arm; was practically severed-, the lower part of the face and jaw smashed, and she had 'Other injuries. Both parties were conscious.

In reply to 1 the police, tho woman said: “I was going home. He shot me.’ The doctor immediately attended) both patient® and recognised that the woman’s, condition was serious. Cars - were procured and the jouruey made to the Thame®, but the woman was dead before reaching hospital. Page was attended to and* it is stated that bis injuries are not serious. It appears the woman wa® married t 0 Thomas Hutchinson, a man of Maori descent, living . near Turin). They had been married fifteen years and have three children. About five mouths ago the woman left her husband! and went to live with Page. Apparently the woman meant to leave Page and return home judging by parcels that were found alongside the scene of the tragedy. A farmer named Goorge Bertram Wallis living opposite the cottage, was painting his hou®e>, and was an eye-witness of tho tragedy. It is reported! he ran over when Page picked u,p a gun and covered him. Wallis retired to the, road and got the assistance of another man, who brought a gun, and the two went over and found) Page near the woman, j who, despite her injuries, had stag- j gored some distanco, evidently tuwards a neighbour’s cottage* They persuaded Page ‘ gun, took him,do- -- ™ , hls the police. " " u aM waited for into The woman wa® taken t cottage- When the doctor uad attended C to the woman lie examined the man. The latter was smoking a cigarette, The scene was ' appalling. ~ Page was lying on the bank of Pipiroa road about half a male from the wbare, covered in blood, bis shirt burnt by a. discharge of the gnu, and his clothe® matted in blood. The canstable took charge of him, and the party returned to the wlnire. Near it was a hat. a bag' of biscuit®, and a cardboard Imx. 'Fitbin, oil a wire matress, laj the woman, whoso lace was .unrecognisable. Her right- arm was practically i-- veiwr’ the bones protruding, the lower jaw and roof of the mouth were tm-aUiied. Two car-

tridige wads, ami pellets were taken out of the wound. The woman was conscious.

Page’s injuries showed that the whole of the left breast *was shot a wap from below. The woman was placed on a door and put across the motor scats for the long!journey to the Thamets. Low tide prevented the use of the launch. Page followed in the next car. He smoked freely and chatted to the police. The whare was small and poorly furnished ami bundles tied u.p indicated a shift. It is reported! that Page secured the gun from a neighbour’s houisc. "When found, it was fully loaded. Deceased recognised her Inns band, who arrived 1 on the scene, and spoke to him.