WAIKAKA MANSLAUGHTER CASE.

Evening Star, Issue 4301, 8 December 1876, Page 4

WAIKAKA MANSLAUGHTER CASE.

An inquiry was held before Mr Nugent Wood, District Coroner, at Waikaka, on Saturday, into the cause of the death of a man named Maxwell Close Hamilton, who was reported to have received fatal injuries by the hand of his brother on the previous Thursday. Prisoner, who is a short and stout-built man, was in custody before the inquest was held. The witnesses examined were William and Mary Pacey, William Edge, Fred. Lamb, Constable Dunnett, and Dr Douglas. The following is a summary of the evidence :—" The prisoner, John Irvine Hamilton, and the deceased were brothers, natives of County Armagh, Ireland, both unmarried, usually follownig the occupation of miners, and working together as mates for twenty years past. They were both of intemperate habits, but as a rule when one drank the other remained sober. On this occasion the prisoner had been drinking for some days, and on the morning of the 29th ultimo came into a chaft'-house at Waikaka, where the deceased and a man named Lamb had been employed to cut chaff for a Mrs Pacy. Prisoner asked deceased to give or get him some drink. Deceased refused, and prisoner then kicked him on the shin until blood Howed over his boot. Lamb then interfered, and turned prisoner out. He forced his way back, and caught deceased by the hair and whiskers. Lamb again interfered, and forced prisoner out, °but in doing so had to use some violence to the prisoner. Deceased then complained that he was ill, and lay down in the chaff-house for about half an hour, and then went with Lamb to the next hotel where they had some beer. Lamb slept that nudit in a hut close to the chaft'-house, and the prisoner with his brother slept in the chaffhouse. Before going to bed, deceased gave the prisoner about two glasses of spirits in a bottle, telling him he might drink a part or the whole, as he should not get any more. Lamb was awakened in the night by a noise in the chaff-house, and then heard the cry of murder; but as he thought it was the prisoner's cry, he paid no attention to it and went to sleep again. Later, at about 5 a.m , Mrs Pacey, who lived close to, heard a noise m it, went down, and in looking through an opening saw- deceased and his brother struggling on the floor, and heard one (she cannot say which) call out 'murder' She then called Lamb, and he states that when he got outside his hut, he found the deceased coming towards it, carrying his trousers in his hand, and freely vomiting blood. He said, ' Ah! Fred, why did you not come in when I called last night; the wretch jumped on me.' Lamb took him into his hut cr o t some chlorodyne and gruel, which was given to deceased by Mr and Mrs Edge, who were called in by Lamb. Edge remained with him all day until about 8 p.m., when he died, having vomited large quantities of blood, but having made no further statement to Edge than that lie did not know what was the matter with him. Lamb proceeded to Tapanui, and informed Dr Dou<das whom he asked for a prescription, which he gave him. He then informed Constable Dunnett, who immediately proceeded to Waikaka, and on hisanival he found deceased had died some time before. He found a large quantity of clotted blood in the hut; examined the body and found several marks on it, one especially on the shin, which seemed to have been recently inflicted. Arrested the prisoner, who said it was all through the cursed drink; that they had been twenty years together, and got on very well except when there was drink lying about. i,r Douglas performed a 2>ost mortem examination of the body, and gave it as his opinion, that death was caused by an excessive hemorrhage in the stomach, arising from an abrasion there ; that there was no trace of disease in the stomach ; that neither was there an external mark ; and therefore he was unable to say what caused the abrasion ; that external violence might have caused it without leaving an external mark, but that he had never known a place where it did." The jury, after a short consultation, returned a verdict of manslaughter Prisoner was brought on to Lawrence on Sunday, and sent to Dunedin on Monday morning, where he will remain to stand his trial.