KINGSAND MURDER CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 883, 25 August 1910, Page 2

KINGSAND MURDER CASE.

FATHER THOUGHT HIM MERELY ECCENTRIC.

Eondon cables stated that James Hamilton Nicholas, who murdered his father with a sword at Kingsand, Cornwall, had been confined in the Auckland Mental Hospital, and that SurgeonMajor Nicholas had refused to engage a keeper despite the fact that his son had suffered from religious melancholia and sunstroke. Nicholas was formerly a settler in the Gisborne district, where he took up land on his arrival from England. He lived in a lonely spot, and seldom saw other people. The loneliness so preyed on his mind that eventually he became mentally afflicted and had to be sent to the Auckland Mental Hospital. When his father had been informed of the fact he came out from Home, and tasked tor the release of his son, declaring that he was merely eccentric. There was no sign ot homicidal mania, but the authorities, fearing that Nicholas might jump overboard while being taken Home, refused to discharge the patient. As a result of his pleas, the father was permitted to take his son out of the hospital. For some time his father did not take him from the Dominion, so that he might be able to judge as to his mental condition. At length Major Nicholas said he believed his son was in a fit condition to be taken Home. He did not take him to-. England, however, but took him " back to the asylum prior to his departure from the Dominion. Major Nicholas* had scarcely arrived back when he wrote that he was coming out for his son, and as the patient then showed some improvement he was permitted to return with his father, who was told by the authorities that be should place him under restraint on arrival Home, lest in a fit of melancholia he should attempt suicide. The father, however, still refused to believe that his son was of unsound mind. He evidently retained' tie same impression on arriving home, judging from the fact that he permitted his son to enter the room in which the sword was hung.