THE TRAGEDY AT TAURANGA.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 10, 5 March 1892, Page 227

THE TRAGEDY AT TAURANGA.

On the morning of the 9th of February there occurred at Tauranga a crime exceeding in its lurid features all ordinary offences which result in the shedding of human blood. Duncan Munro, a lunatic, who had been released from the asylum in the belief that he had recovered from his temporary insanity, was discovered to have murderously assaulted his wife and his four children. Suspicion was aroused by finding Munro wandering along the beach in his night - dress, and upon exploring the house the victims were discovered in a dying condition. All but one died subsequently. It is supposed that the in-

juries were inflicted with a Hat iron or a rolling-pin, found upon the site of the tragedy. It appears that Munro had been discharged from the asylum two years previously, but his conduct had been often such as to excite the suspicions of both Dr. Buller and the police of Tauranga, who severally warned his relatives of his possible relapse. The jury expressed their sense of this apathy in the verdict, which was one of wilful murder, appending as a rider that he should never have been let out of the asylum, and had not been properly looked after by his family.