THE CHRISTCHURCH MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 603, 30 November 1909, Page 2

THE CHRISTCHURCH MURDER.

Christchurch, Yesterday. A telegram from the Minister o Justice was received to-day by the Lyttelton Gaol authorities, stating that his Excellency the Governor had been pleased to commute the death sentence passed last week upon Arthur Roberts for the murder of Alice Newman, in the Silver Grid restaurant, to one of imprisonment for life. Official documents are hot yet to hand, but when the glad news of his reprieve was communicated to Roberts, by '{a the Chief Warder, in the absence i of the Governor of the Gaol, Mr Ironsides, who is still laid up, suffering from the effects of his recent accident caused by the capsizing of the police van, he received it with great calmness, and had nothing to say. He had been looking forward with great confidence, as if he fully expected a reprieve, and had been in good spirits, while he has slept well, and his appetite has been excellent. The Revs. J. J. Bates and T. J. Smaill, lay evangelists, have been visiting Roberts regularly in his cell. ' There are now seven men in the Lyttelton Gaol serving life sentences ; three for murder, and others for serious crimes. It is somewhat of a coincidence that Mr W. J. Hunter, who appeared for Roberts at the trial, to-day forwarded a largely signed petition to the Minister for Justice, for transmission to his Excellency the Governor, praying that Roberts’ sentence might be commuted.