ALLEGED MURDER OF A HUSBAND BY HIS WIFE.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 973, 18 December 1882, Page 2

ALLEGED MURDER OF A HUSBAND BY HIS WIFE.

(per press association) AUCKLAND, Saturday. Warrants have just been issued for the arrest of Miriam Hamilton and Thoa. Priestley, a Presbyterian' student, charging them with the wilful murder of the former’s husband, Hugh Aitkon Hamilton, who, it was supposed, met his death on the night of the 28th nit. by falling head foremost upon the edge of an iron bedstead while in a state of drunkenness. The coroner’s inquest resulted in finding a verdict that deceased met his death by accidentally falling against an iron bedstead, This, however, did not satisfy the deceased's relatives, and at their instigation the police began to make further investigations, as in the meantime some ugly rumours were being culatod. It was alleged that the widow had been improperly intimate with a young theological student who taught in the same Sunday school (St. James’, Presbyterian) as deceased, and who lived next dpor to her mother’s house. The police sued both parties separately, and each of them contradicted the statement. With groat patience Superintendent Thomson and Detective Strathenrn followed np the trail, and yesterday, having got all the outside testimony possible, they had the prisoners’ property ami. abode searched, the result being the discovery of a pair of dark tweed trousers in Priestley’s box bearing traces of comparatively recent blood, and of an axe in the widow’s house, which also showed faint traces of blood, ns if there had been an attempt to wash them out. The affair Ims caused a groat sensation. Priestley was a convert from Roman Catholicism, and Hamilton was (Secretary of the Orange Lodge, while Mrs Hamilton was a Scotch Presbyterian. »