ALLEGED MURDER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1084, 9 March 1883, Page 3

ALLEGED MURDER.

A coroner’s inquest was held at Wan- r ganui oir March 2nd on the body of the i half-caste child found on the beao.t the 1 e. \ Tire evidence showed that the mother, t Phoebe Teitch, had taken the child out on j Monday afternoon last, staring that an ' aunt was going to take it up country by s that afternoon’s train, and that on In r | return she stated that the child had gone r away accordingly ; that a ladv at Christ- a church was going to adopt it; and that the ; mother was never to see it again. When '] arrested by the police the mother said she took the child for a walk on Monday id-ht, n and it fell overboard. Sue did not call for f assistance, because there w s iro one about, • though she admitted it was cruel of her to hold her tongue, She admitted the child found was hers, but denied kdling it. Subsequently, in the lock-up, she made another statement to the eft. ct that the father of the child went for a walk with her on the wharf, the child being with them ; \ that he threatened to shoot her, demanded t the child, and on being refused by her he s threw the child into the river. He e threatened to murder her if she said any- ( thing about it. She told the police first ; that the father of the drowned child, who was not her husband, came from India, and | afterwards that he was cither a Chinaman ( or a half-caste Chinaman. She strenuously - denied killing the child herself. -At the . inquest she volunteered a very long state- i ment of her past four years’ history, and repeated her statement about die man ! throwing the child-off the wharf, and gave : a circumstantial description of the man’s appearance and clothes. She .concluded by solemnly swearing her innocence of the crime. The jury found that the deceased child was thrown into the river either by the mother or by the man who she says is its father. Four jurofs'"dissentod from this, and wished a simple verdict of wilful murder against the woman. The Corone.i committed her for tria for wilful murder at the April sittings of the Supreme Court. Accused has led a desolute life for many years. Her-husband left her twd years ago. She Ins three children, each by a different father. The motive suggested for tho crime is that the woman was unable to support.the two children living with her, both of whom, however, were well mature I and caret for. Her third child is kept by her husband’s family. The police ha> e been unable to discover any man answering to the description of him whom accused charges with throwing the child into the river.