SHOCKING OCCURRENCE AT TIMARU.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 626, 21 June 1876, Page 2

SHOCKING OCCURRENCE AT TIMARU.

Full Particulars. (From this day's Herald.') The inhabitants of Timaru were startled yesterday by the report that John Macgregor had committed suicide by taking poison, and that he had killed his wife, Celia, by administering some of the stuff to her. The circumstances of the ease are as follows : A milkman named Harris went to the house in which Macgrcgor and his wife lived (a two-roomed cottage close to the Hibernian Hotel) at about 9 a.ra, but found the door fastened, the place appearing as though the inmates were not up. In reply to his knocking and calling, he heard Mrs Macgregor answer him from within in such a manner to inspire the belief that

something was wrong. He went to an adjacent house for a Mrs Jones, who, with him, managed to effect an entrance into the house of Macgregor. They found Macgregor in bed in a dying state, with his hands raised, and Mrs Macgregor, who was in Jbed with him, told them that he had taken some bitters, which he had obtained on the previous night at the Ship Hotel. She then began to complain of pains of a twitching nature in her inside, which* she intimated, kept increasing in intensity. Mr Harris and Mrs Jones at once sent for Mr O’Driscoll, proprietor of the Hibernian Hotel, and Mrs Macgregor said upon his arrival that she had taken some of the bitters, which her husband had given her. In a very short time after Mr O’Driscoll’s arrival Mrs Macgregor died. Dr Macintyre was sent for as soon as possible after it was seen that the woman was dangerously ill, but before he arrived life was extinct. Enquiries having been set on foot to account for the deaths, it transpired that on the previous day Macgregor had purchased from MrWatkins, chemist, 5s worth of strychnine, and it was then surmised that he must have put this into the bitters that he had obtained for the purpose of destroying his life, but whether he intended to poison his wife or whether her partaking of the liquor was an accident is not known for certainty. It is generally believed, however, that he originally only meant to destroy himself. This belief is' entertained principally from the tenor of a letter to his wife which was found in one of his pockets, dated Friday last, and running to the effect that owing to troubles which he had got into on account of money matters in land transactions, he was going to put himself out of,the world, in order to prevent his wi f e suffering as well as himself. It seems, that Macgregor intended to destroy himself in a different way to that by which ho effected his purpose. ' On Monday he went to Mr E. Reece’s to buy a pistol, giving as hia reason for requiring one that he was going into the Mackenzie country, and that in consequence of the trrnr s on the road he did not like being without a weapon to defend himself with in case of an attack. For some reason, however, the shopkeeper did not supply the pistol. We are informed that Macgregor came out to Canterbury in 1861. that he was manager of the Canterbury Standard for some time, and held an office in connection with the Supreme Court, Christchurch, afterwards. He was at one time a publican in the Mackenie Country, but during the greater part of the time he has resided in this district he has followed the occupation of a derk and accountant at Timaru.