A WELLINGTON SENSATION REVIVED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3784, 1 February 1908, Page 4

A WELLINGTON SENSATION REVIVED.

Seven Years for Manslaughter. The Accused in Palmerston. ; A case which created considerable sensation in Wellington .riu 1900 was re-called by a visit to the Manawatu Times office oh Monday' of Mrs Henderson, who was charged with the murder of a girl 21 years of age, member .of a well-knovvli .Wellington family, in 1900, and awarded a sentence of seven years’ for hard labour for ‘ ‘ manslaughter. ’ ’ There were all sorts of rumours at;;the , time of well-known names being involved, but the major disclosures never eventuated. Mrs Henderson served her time and was duly ,is now a resident of Palmerston North, and is seeking the;aid of the press to secure the re-opening of her case, and also an enquiry into heir treatment in prison. , She claims tO have been innocent of the offence charged ' against her, and to have been made. a .scapegoat,. Also she complains of her. treat*’ ment in prjson, which she says resulted in her being discharged a cripple. According to her story,, she was forced to wash moleskin's as many as 48 in a day, and hang them .out, and being a small woj man and riot strong, down.., She also says that the fbdd* was unsuitable. ‘ ’ Mrs Henderson is petitioning i Parliament for. an enquiry. The petition sets out that during her imprisonment she was “ treated most harshly and improperly, with permanent injury to health.” She proceeds to state that in an effort to , keep up her good conduct marks she strained her eyesight, and finally had to take to the gaol hospital where she was denied, medicine she requested, and that she knew would cure her.

The petition goes on to state: — (7) “I was detained in prison for a period of almost nine months longer than I should' have been, and during that period my treatment was almost inhumane. I was denied medicine prescribed by Dr. Moore, and was, on the other hand, given something which caused agonies which were almost unbearable. I asked the doctor for a remedy which I knew would give me some relief, but the same was not supplied to me, and on my renewing my request after waiting a fortnight the doctor expressed surprise that I had not received it. When the remedy was supplied to me it was intact.

(8). On my receiving my liberty, although I was carried out of the prison in a crippled, helpless' condition, I did not receive the full gratuity that I was entitled to.

Mrs Henderson, who walks with a stick, is at present looking up those concerned in her case, some of whom she alleges left her in the lurch.