A DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8780, 6 April 1907, Page 2

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

Murder and Suicide. Per Press Aiscciation. CmiisTciiuuci;, April 4. A double tragedy occurred here late to-night. A man named Smithers, living in Durham, went to where a woman named Jackson was living, and first of all cut her throat with a razor, and afterwards gashed his own. Jealousy is supposed to be the cause of the outrage. The woman was removed to the hospital, and at midnight her condition was so serious that it was decided to take her dying depositions. Tho man was not so seriously injured, for he broke the razor in the attack on the woman, and did not out his throat to tho extent he would have done had the razor been undamaged. When Smithers was saying good-bye to the woman he brutally attacked her and, after pursuing her for some distance, overtook her and inflicted a jagged wound across her throat with a razor, after which ho attempted to commit suicide with the same weapon. The attack attracted several persons in vicinity and tho police were telephoned for, and when they arrived the man and woman were taken in a collapsed condition to the hospital. It appears that Smithers, who belonged to Melbourne, had been living in Durhamstreet and J ackson living not far away in Antigua-street. They had been keeping company for some time, but latterly not without bickering. On Thursday even ing Jackson scuta complaint to the police that Smithers was annoying her and would not leave her alone. On this information Smithers was arrested, but was released as no charge was laid. He was not sober and said to have presented the appearance of a “ ne’er-do-well ” Apparently the quarrel was patched up for the pair wont to Lyttelton together and the tragedy is supposed to have occurred shortly after their return to Christchurch. Smithers accompanied Jackson to the gate of her residence and there she said good-bye as she intended to sever her intimacy with him. Then he knocked her down and producing a j razor attempted her life after chasing her as far as Mborhouse Avenue. At the hospital Dr. Crooke discovered that the woman’s injury was likely to prove fatal and Mr Bishop, S.M., and the Coroner were summoned and her depositions taken in which she made a definite statement against Smithers. She lies in a very critical condition. Smithers is now out of danger. The woman’s wound was a deep jagged cut three inches long on tho loft side of the neck. Smithers inflicted three cuts on hia own throat, not very severe, though they bled a great deal.