HOKITIKA.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3085, 17 May 1881, Page 3

HOKITIKA.

May 17,

Mrs M'Gahey the wife of the man who now lies in Hokitika gaol cbarg d with the murder of Bell, arrived here by coach from Chistchurch on Saturday last. Soon after her arrival she went to the police station and confessed to Sergt. Moller that she had wilfully set fire to her husband's house at Larry's Creek in the month of December last. It appears from her story that tunds were subscribed to enable her to leave Reefton ; that she went to Westport, and from that port took ship to Lyttelton. She obtained an engagement as servant to a family in Amberley. She was, however, constantly disturbed by the apparitions of her husband and the murdered man Bell. These ghostly visitors urged upon her to make atonement, as she could not bear tbe continued reproach she determined to come back to the Coast by the first opportunity and to deliver herself up to justice. Sergeant Moller arrested her upon a charge of arson. She also informed Sergeant Moller that she asked tbe spirit of the murdered man whether she should take her own life, but was advised to come over here and confess what she had done. Her statement was minute. She said she had walked 12 miles in order to burn down her house which she resolved should never become the property of the mortgagee after all her hard work to make a home for herself. It is clear that the unfortunate creature's brain must be temperorarily affected by the shocking events with which her name is connected. She was brought up at the R.M. Court yesterday on a charge of arson and was remanded for eight days to undergo medical treatment, the accused being in a very weak state of health.

Another fatal case of diphtheria occurred on Sunday last at Ross.