LATEST TELEGRAMS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1260, 27 January 1883, Page 2

LATEST TELEGRAMS.

[per united press association], DUNEDIN, This Day. Patrick Walsh, proprietor of the Helensbrook Flour Mill, near Tokomariro, met with an alarming accident to-day. He was caught by a shaft and dragged up, but managedto hold on to something till released. He had every stitch of clothes torn off, and is much strained and bruised. In the murder case, Judge Williams in his charge to the jury said this case, like most cases of the kina, depends on circumstantial evidence, and it may be well that I should preface my remarks by explaining shortly what circumstantial evidence really is, ancl what amount of circumstantial evidence will justify a jury in arriving at the conclusion that the prisoner is guilty of the crime he stands accused of. Now, circumstantial evidence consists of a series of circumstances pointing in one direction, namely, guilt of the accused person ; not only must they be consistent with his guilt, but also inconsistent with any other national conclusion. That is a consideration, which in most important for the jurors in cases of circumstantial evidence to bear in mind. I will not compare circumstantial evidence to a chain, and say that where one of the circumstances attempted to be proved, fails to be proved, that, therefore, there is a missing link, and that the whole fabrics must fall to pieces ; there may be a number of circumstances advanced in evidence without proof of one of them, but it does not necessarily follow from that that the case will fail to be proved if the remaining circumstances proved point to the prisoner’s guilt. The Jury have to be satisfied, first, that Mrs Beattie was murdered; second, that prisoner was her murderer. To the suggestion of prisoner’s counsel that the appearance of the body when found was consistent with the theory of death by suicide, or by accident, her previous mental condition was not inconsistent with that view. His view was that appearances were not consistent with suicide being the direct cause of death, as there was no evidence that the deceased attempted to hang herself ; that was the merest possible guess. What appeared the most weak part of the Crown’s case was that it might be consistent with the evidence that the woman was dead before prisoner went to her hut on the 10th June. The conclusion one would draw from reading Dr. DeLautour’s evidence, would be that from his point of view the woman attempted suicide herself and was murdered afterwards. If the wound on her neck was self-inflicted, and those on her body by somebody else, it could not be reasonably expected that blood would be found on the clothes worn by the person who inflicted them. Beattie was acquitted after two hours’ deliberation on the part of the Jury. NELSON, This Day. It is reported that a case of murder has occurred at Happy Valley, Wakapuaka. A man named Fuller had laid an information against one Thompson for threatening to “ do for him,” and this morning Fuller was found shot. No more particulars are to hand yet. WELLINGTON, This day. The long-continued drought is being severely felt, and rain is much wanted. The weather still keeps hot and sultry, and with hut little appearance of any change. The Weather Inspector is taking action against persons found wasting water. It is reported that a man named Ratina, living at Mangmaru, eight miles from here, murdered his wife to-day.