A HORRIBLE ROMANCE OF CRIME.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 113, 12 May 1880, Page 4

A HORRIBLE ROMANCE OF CRIME.

It is reported on good authority that the Executive Council of New South Wales has decided to liberate Bertrand, tbe dentist, who some fifteen years ago, was sentenced to death for the murder of Mr Henry K'nder, tbe paying teller of the City Bank of Sydney. Mr Kinder bad b<>en well and favorably known as a bank official in Wellington, and therefore his tragic end caused considerable excitement in this colony as well as Australia. The case was surrounded by so many strange details (says the Dunedin Star) as to appear almost like the lucubrations of some agony writer in a "penny diabolioal." Mr Kinder resided near Sydney, in the beautiful and romantic St. Leonards, North Shore. Bertrand was a dentist carrying on a business in Wynyard Square. Bertrand aud Kinder were on visiting terms. Kinder had left New Zealand in debt, and threats of legal proceedings caused him to become so downcest that be eventually had to obtain leave of absencs from bis banking duties. A ievr days ago it was bruited about Sydney that Kinder had been shot in the side of (he head accidentally, but that under tbe care of Dr, Eichler, a leading medical practitioner in Sydney, he was rapidly recovering. Then came the announcement of Kinder's daath. An inquest was held, and a verdict of accidentle death returned. But now comes the strangest part of the affair. A person named Jackson, formerly a squatter in New Zealaod, who had been one of Mrs Kinder's particular friends, and of whom Kinder was very jealous, had well-nigh ruined him" Belt in Sydney, and wrota a lengthy letter to Bertrand, in which be threatened that if Bertrand did not give him enough money to pay for a passage back to New Zealand, a charge would be made by him against Bertrand for murdering Kinder. Bertrand at once handed this letter to the police, and Jackson was arrested and sentenced to penal servitude by Judge Hargreaves for sending a threatening letter. Though some divulgences made at and after the trial, Bertrand was suspected of carrying on a liaison with Mrs Kinder, and, eventually, through some other statements made to the police, Bertrand, Mrs Bertrand, and Mrs Kinder were arrested and charged with murdering Mr Kinder. Bertrand only was put upon his trial. The jury on being called upon for their verdict were at first equally divided; on a final division, seme hours subsequently, there were nine for acquittal and three for guilty. The jury was then discharged, and Bertrand was again tried . Between the date of the first and second trials a rooßt diabolioal rumor was generally circulated that Bertrand bad been guilty

of fearful secret crimes whilst prosecuting bis profession es a dentist, and that a private diary in bis hand-writing fully detailing these crimes bad been discovered by the police. This horrible and improbable rumor obtained very general belief, and when the second trial came off Bertrand was found guilty and sentenced to death by Sir Alfred Stephen. An arrest of judgment was applied for by Mr Julian Salatnan, then a rising member of the Bar, who, being of tbe same faith as the prisoner, bad a double incentive to exeroise all his skill and eloquence. Tbe full court, by a majority, permitted an appeal to tbe Privy Council on tbe ground that the judge at the second trial had acted illegally in reading bis notes taken at (he first trial of the witnesses' evidence to them as they were sworn. Sir Alfred Stephen was much hart at this, and stated that he bad taken this course in order to save time, and with tbe conset of tbe Crown, tbe counsel for tbe prisoner, and the prisoner himself. Mr Salaman at once retorted —"Then an ignorant j'idge, weak and incompetent counsel, and a trembling prisoner, can upset the whole of tbe English laws." This quite electrified the Court, and Mr SaUman gained bis point. Tbe Privy Council, while condemning tbe action of Sir Alfred, upheld the conviction, but the Executive Council remitted tbe sentence of death to that of imprisonment for life, wbicb is usually considered, in New Souih Wales, to mean, in tbe case of a well-conducted prisoner, imprisonment for fifteen years, which time has now expired. The proofs of the guilt of Bertrand were very faultry, and now tbe general belief is tbat Bartraud was entirely guiltless of Kinder's death. But there is a strong suspicion still that his conduct towards Mrs Kinder may have indirectly deprivad her of her husband. At all events, he has paid the penalty of such an offenoe. In New South Wales all prisoners undergoing a sentence of from three years upwards serve tbe first nine months in strict solitary confinement in that horror of criminate, Berrima Gaol. Bertrand, under this treatment, went insane, and was for about six years an inmate of the Criminal Lunatic Asylum in Pdrramatta; and Mr Salaman, who so cleverly pleaded for an " arrest of judgment," also went mad Bbortly after obtaining the order for an appeal to the Privy Council, aad, a few years ago, Dr Eichler, the surgeon who attended Kinder, became similarly afflicted.