MAJOR SETON'S DEATH

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16427, 22 January 1919, Page 7

MAJOR SETON'S DEATH

EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST. (By Cable. —Press Aeeooiatioa.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z.. Cable Association.) (Received January 21st. 9.45 p.m.) LONDON, January 18. At the inquest on Major So ton, Lieu-tenant-Colonel Rutherford was not present. Sir Malcolm Seton gave evidence that Major Seton on the night of December 30th was in unusually good spirits. Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford's interview with him iastod fifteen minutes, and then shots were heard. Witness found deceased lying across the hall. Apparently ho was leaving the room when he fell. Rutherford admitted Bhooting him. He was very quiet and calm, and looked like a man who had decided to do something, and having done it, nothing else mattered. Lady Seton deposed that during Sir Malcolm Snton's absence Rutherford was restless. She heard the click of a pistol and shouted, "Put that down and com© over here." Rutherford obeyed and promised not to touch it, adding, "I would not promise if it was of any use to me." A doctor stated that there wore fourteen bullet wounds in the body. Tho weapon had been fired at very close quarters.

A typiste in a Ministerial office in Wellington was formerly secretary to Sir James Roberts, Bart, (father of Mrs Rutherford, the wifo of LieutenantColonel Rutherford, concerned in the Seton shooting case in London). "This gentleman," says his late secretary, "is a well-known figure in commercial and political circles in tho Old Country.He is a self-educated and self-made man, who began lifo as a mill-boy, and now owns the town of Saltaire (one of Yorkshire's 'model villages') with two or three country seats, of which, the most notable one is the ancestral home of the Earls of Perth, at Strathmore. Scotland. Sir James, although so successful and powerful in business and public life, has had a tragic career. His eldest son unexpectedly developed a fatal disease and died in South Africa, where his father had bought an estate for him., in the hope of his recovery. His next eldest sou was cut down in the prime of life "by the recurrence of malarial fever, contracted during a tour through South America in his youth. His youngest son met with a tragic death at Portrush in Ireland during a holiday there. Now comes the tragedv connected with his daughter, Mrs Rutherford, who was always a livelv and popular girl."