SHOCKING DOMESTIC TRAGEDY.
THE- WHANGAREI AFFAIR
EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST
[BY TELEGRAPH. —I'ItKSS ASSOCIATION.] Whangarei, Wednesday.
At the inquest on the death of Mary Hammon, the victim of the boardinghouse tragedy the evidence of a son, aged 13, showed that tha parents quarrelled three weeks ago because the father did not like the mother joking with the boarders. "Fath:-r lent mother some money," said the witness, "and he was annoyed because she did not return it to him, and declined to go to work until it was paid." The night before hia mother was killed his father rolled up his swag and said that he was going to Kawakawa on Tuesday. In the morning witness and liis father, who slept in a tent in the grounds, got up at 4 o'clock and asked his mother for money for the journey. His mother refused, and hia father got an axe, and when his mother's back was turned struck her on the head. She screamed and fell backwards. His father then struck her two or three times as she lay on the floor, left the axe buried in her head, and shouting "Good-bye!" rushed out of the house. His mother uttered no sound save a low moaning after the first blow.
Arthur Hammori, aged 15, said that big parents quarrelled a good deal at times. Hia fathor had two weeks previously threatened to do for witness for taking hi 3 mother's part.
W. Wooda, a boarder, said that the deceased had told him three weeks ago that her husband had threatened her again.
Sergeant Moore stated that Hammon on being arrested said "it was done for the best. It was done for the children's sake. She said I wouldn't work. She was cruel to the children. It will all come out now." The coroner said that it was a shocking case, and he was sorry such things should happen in Whangarei or elsewhere.
A verdict of wilful murder was returned, and the accused was brought before the Court, charged, and remanded until Monday.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/KCC19140725.2.18
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King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 689, 25 July 1914, Page 5
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341SHOCKING DOMESTIC TRAGEDY. King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 689, 25 July 1914, Page 5
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