A HORRIBLE ROMANCE OF CRIME.

Kumara Times, Issue 1134, 18 May 1880, Page 4

A HORRIBLE ROMANCE OF CRIME.

It is reported on good authority that the Executive Council of New South Wales has decided to liberate Bertrand, the dentist, who some fifteen years ago was sentenced to death for the murder of Mr Henry Kinder, the paying teller of the City Bank of Sydney. Mr Kinder had been well and favorably known as a bank official in Wellington, and therefore his tragic end caused considerable excitement in this colony as well as in Australia. The case was surrounded by so many strange details (says the Dunedin Star) as to appear almost like the lucubrations of some agony writer in a " penny diabolical." Mr Kinder resided near Sydney, in the beautiful and romantic suburb of St. Leonards, North Shore. Bertrand was a dentist carrying on business in Wynyard Square. Pertrand and Kinder were on visiting terms. Kinder had left New Zealand in debt, and threats of legal proceedings caused him to become so downcast that he had to obtain leave of absence from his banking duties. A few days after it was bruited about Sydney that Kinder had been shot in the side of the head accidentally, but that under the care of Dr Eichler, a leading medical practitioner in Sydney, he was recovering. Then came the announcement of Kinder's death. An inquest was held and a verdict was held and a verdict of acci dental death returned. But now comes the strangest part of the affair. A person named Jackson, formerly a squatter In New Zealand, who had been one of Mrs Kinder's particular friends, and of whom Kinder was very jealous, had well-nigb ruined'himself in Sydney, and wrote a lengthy letter to Bertrand, in which he threatened that if Bertrand did not give him enough money to pay for a passage back to New Zealand, a charge would be made * by him against Berirand for murdering Kinder. Bertrand at once 'handed this letter to the police, and Jackson was arrested and sentenced to penal aervisude by Judge Hargreaves for sending a threatening letter. Through some divulgences made at and after the trial Bertrand was suspected of carrying on a liaison with Mrs Kinder, and, eventually, through some other statements made to the police, Bertrand, Mrs Bertrand, and Mrs Kinder were arrested and charged with murdering Mr Kinder. Bertrand only was put upon his trial. The jury on being called upon for their verdict were at first equally divided ; on a final division, some hours subsequently there were nine for aoquittal and three for guilty. The jury was then discharged, and Bertrand was again tried. Between the date of the first and second trials a most diabolical rumor was generallylcirculated to the effect that Bertrand had been guilty of fearful secret crimes whilst prosecuting his profession as a dentist, and that a private diary in his handwriting fully detailing these crimeß had been discovered by the police. This horrible and improbable rumor obtained very general .belief, and when the second trial came off Bertrand was found guilty and sentenced to death by Sir Alfred Stephen. An arrest of judgement was applied for by Mr Julian Salaman, then a rising member of the Bar, who, being of the same faith as the prisoner, had a double incentive to exercise all his skill and eloquence. The full court,-by ayttiajority, permitted an appeal to the Privyjjpuncil on the ground that the judge aPSSe second trial had acted ulegallylh reading his notes taken at the first trial of the witnessed evidence to them as they were sworn. Sir Alfred Stephen was much hurt at this, and stated that he had taken this course in order to save time, and with the consent of the Crown,- the counsel for the prisoner, and the prisoner himself. Mr Salaman at once reported—" Then an Ignorant judge, weak and incompetent counsel, and a trembling prisoner, can upset the whole of the English laws." This quite electrified the Court, and Mr Salaman gained his point. The Privy Council, while condemning the action of Sir Alfred, upheld the conviction, but the Executive Council remitted the sentence of death to that of imprisonment for life, which is usually considered, in New South Wales, to mean, in the case of a well-conducted prisoner, imprisonment for fifteen yearß, wh ch time has now expired. The proofs of the guilt of Bertrand were very faulty, and now the general belief is that gW. W » B « ntirel y guiltless of Kinder's death. But there is a strong suspicion still that his conduct towards Mrs Kinder may have indirectly deprived her of her husband. At all events, he has paid the penalty of such an offence. In New South Wales all prisoners undergoing a Bentence of from three years upwards Berve the first nine months in strict solitary confinement in that horror of criminals, Berrima Gaol. Bertrand, under this treatment, went insane, and was for about six years an inmate of the Criminal Lunatic Asylum in Parramatta ; and Mr. Salaman, who so cleverly pleaded for an " arrest of judgment," also went mad shortly after obtaining the order for an appeal to the Privy Council, S* few J e * XB *B<>> D'. Eichler, the