BRUTAL MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2103, 16 March 1920, Page 3

BRUTAL MURDER.

A POSTMASTER SHOT DEAD,

SENSATION AT PONSONBY. POST OFFICE BROKEN INTO AND ROBBED. Auckland, March .1-1. A brutal murder was commit led at Ponsonhy on Saturday night, together with a robbery at the Ponsonby Post Office. It appears that the postmaster, Augustus Edward Braithwaite, aged fifty-nine years, left the office about (i o’clock, and returned to his home some ten minutes’ walk away. His wife went visiting friends .in the evening, and on returning about 8 o’clock found Braithwaite lying in the hack portion of the house. Atfirst, she thought he, had had a fit, hut later, when a doctor arrived, it was found he had been shot through the throat and body. The police discovered that the post office keys were missing, and on going t° the post office found a window- and the door forced. The strongroom had been opened with keys taken from the dead postmaster. and three cash-boxes in the strongroom had been rilled. It is not thought that the sum secured was more than £IOO. An inquest was opened to-day, and.adjourned. Deceased had been in the postal service for about Lorly \cais, and at Ponsonhy for about eight or ten years. ( When found, Braithwaite was hing face down towards the door of the room.' It is thought dial ho opened the door, when the murderer ..hot him down without warning. Shortly before 8 p.m. on Saturday a neighbour heard two sharp reports .such as those-,made by revolver shots. She had recently had a new boiler installed in the kitchen .-love, and thought the sounds were the wracking of new boiler plates. She also heard an indefinite kind ol Huge, as if some person'had received a fright and cried mil a link'. Ollier -people in the vicinity heard (iistincllv two shots fin'd, and thinking they came from Point Erin Park, took no notice. It i.- believed that the murderer had some knowledge of deceased s domestic arrangements, and evident ly watched the movements of Al l* Braithwaite, who, if he hit the post office at 7.35 p.m., could only have been in i'he house for a inmate ~r two before the murderer arrived. Dei-eased was almost due to relive on superannuation. He was a carefill and conscientious officer, ■prior to'his appointment a- postmaster to ilie Ponsonhy position he was stationed at Te Awaniulu and Rotorua. The police arc actively engaged upon the case, which is a particularly difficult one. So far no arrest lias been reported.