WIFE-MURDER AT OXFORD.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 207, 12 July 1878, Page 2

WIFE-MURDER AT OXFORD.

THE MURDERER IN CUSTODY.

Our Oxford correspondent sends particulars of a shocking occurrence which took place at Oxford yesterday. It appears that about half-part eleven in the morning the house of a German, named Hoff, was observed to be on fire. - Immediately on the alarm being; given; the mill hands' hurried to the house td but 6'iit the flames, the first to reach the place being Mr John Lee, junior, a millowner. On his arrival he saw the wife of the man Hoff lying on the ground within a few feet of the' fireHe at once tried to lift her up, when he was horrified to discover a fearful* gash upon her head, from_which the blood and brains were exuding, the woman being of course quite, insensible. Dr. Weld was immediately sent for, and on his arrival soon after pronounced the woman to be in a dying state, Within a short time the police reched the spot, and a report was then circulated that Hoff had been seen rushing about the bush in a demented state, with a gun or pistol in his possession. The constables immediately set off in pursuit.

A litter was then made with' sacks, and with the help of a number of the bystanders the poor woman was carried down the hill, as steadily as the rough nature of the ground permitted to Ferguson's Hotel, where she soon afterwards expired. The opinion of the doctor was that the wound which had proved fatal was distinctly a cut. At a late hour in the day the man Hoff was arrested. He does not appear to have made any real attempt to escape, or even to deny that he had killed his wife. He came openly into the public-house with another German, who treated him to a glass of beer. Hoff then.said that that would be the last glass he should have in Oxford. His companion asked him why so. Hoff then made a statement to the effect that his wife had struck him in the face with the back of her hand, and that he had retaliated by striking her with the tomahawk.— Press.

We learn that an inquest has since been held on the unfortunate woman, at which a verdict of "Wilful Murder" against Hoff was returned.