The Auckland Tragedy.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 69, 23 February 1885, Page 2

The Auckland Tragedy.

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Anc*KLANi>, Feb. 20. It is apparent that the murder was committed about noon yesterday. Two sons left the house about noon for the district school sports, and as the accused was m a public house at Pokeno about two o'clock m the afternoon on his way to Mercer, it is plain that the deed must have been done shortly after the sons left home. The accused was at Mercer yesterday afternoon for some hours, and attracted attention by his extraordinary behaviour. He was m a state of intoxication, besides labouring under high excitement, and was speaking and drinking with everyone who would join him. He talked a good deal of incoherent stuff, and m the course of his conversation asserted several times that he had shot his wife. He loudly boasted that the whole ■of the Mercer belonged to him, but that the title-deeds had been ,lost while ho was m the asylum. He intended, however, to go and see Superintendent Thomson and get them recovered. He entered a house, and while there a boy threw a stone on the galvanised iron roof. Prendergast came out, saying, " You have come to shoot me, because I shot the okl woman. Yes, I shot her. She has been chopping me for 117 years, but she won't chop me any : more." Those who heard him concluded that he was raving, and the majority of them knew he had been about two years m the lunatic asylum, from which he was discharged two years ago. They therefore paid no attention to his assertions about having murdered his wife, and he was allowed to leave the township unmolested. The deceased was about the same age as her husband. They came to the district 20 years ago, having four ■ sons, the eldest of; whom. has. since married and-, settled at Pokeno. The second son, John, was employed at Newmarket on the railway, and on receiving intimation of the tragedy this morning he at once took . the tram for Pokeno. The two younger sons, , as already stated, resided with ; their parents. An inquest is to be ;;held to-morrow. ri