The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1887. THE TIMARU POISONER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1478, 9 February 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1887. THE TIMARU POISONER.

Now that the condemned prisoner Thomas Hall lies under sentence of death, and that the question as to whether or not he is to expiate on the scaffold the crime of which he has been convicted turns only on a technical point of law, the decision upon which can by no possibility be affected by any discussion m the newspaper press, we feel at liberty to raise a question which it might have seemed unfair to raise prior to or during his trial, viz, "Is the full measure of his crimes yet revealed — do we know all ?" What we do know is black enough. Not only has he been convicted of the attempted murder of ihis wife, and of the effectual murder of his father m- law, but his whole career, for years past, seems to nave been surrounded by tragedies. His quondam par tner,Tait, died by poison — strychnine — according to the verdict of the Ci oner's jury, administered by his own hand — albeit to this day many of those who know him best refuse to believe it — his housekeeper who attended his wife m her first illness, and then suspected him of administering poison, became insane, and is now m the Lunatic Asylum ; a young girl with whom he was too intimate, was found drowned m a tank, and the husband of another woman is now doing a sentence of twenty years m Lyttelton gaol for the slaying of his wife ior her infidelity to her marriage vow, Hall having been the guilty sharer of that infidelity. This is a frightful record as surrounding the career of one man, and yet, terrible as it is, we fear that all has not yet been told. Captain Cain had two step-daughters, between whom m his life-time he divided the. bulk of his property, the remainder reverting to them after his death, One of his stepdaughters, as we all know, m an evil hour married Hall, the other had, some years previously, married a Mr Newton, there being we believe, two or three children. As by the death of his wife Hall would have come into the unchecked control of one half of the property, so by the death of Newton the remaining half would pass into the unchecked control of Mrs Newton. To gain the control of Mrs Newton's share it would have been necessary lhat the death of herself and her children should take place, and that she should leave a will m Hall's favor, all which things might quite possibly have happened, or might have been looked forward to by Hall as possibilities. Supposing then, that he had I formed the scheme to get uncontrolled possession at the whole property, the first obstacle m his way would be Newton. And what has happened Newton has disappeared some month ago (if we remember rightly), jus { before or shortly before Mrs Hall firs 1 exhibited symptoms of poisoning, and although it was supposed at the time that he had left the colony, we are not aware ihpt he has been heard from, or heard of, or that anybody at the present moment knows his whereabouts. Suspicion is now, we believe, afoot that all is not right m Newton's case, and we hear that the police have recently been digging the ground around Woodlands, (Hall's former residence)\vith a view to the possible solution of his disappearance. It is further said that the last lime Newton was seen, it was m Hall's company. The matter has an ugly aspect, and it may be to this that the Wellington Post referred, m the article reprinted by us m a recent issue, m which occuts the significant remark, " whether the full measure of his (Hall's) crimes is yet known may be doubted." Or possibly still another case may have been m the mind of the writer, for according to the Tcmuka Leader " A certain Justice of the Peace, who frequently visited Captain Cain, died under circumstances which have led to suspicion, and it is rumored that it is contemplated to exhume his body and have an analysis made." If there be no ground for these suspicions, it will be well to have them allayed by proving them t)si?.faken,-but if they be well founded (though .m ail probability, even if they be proved true, Holl's fate will be iii no -way affected), it is certainly desirable that the whole truth should be known.