A HORRIBLE FATE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2345, 22 September 1880, Page 3

A HORRIBLE FATE.

A WOMAN AND CHILD BURNED TO DEATH. [By Telegraph.] Hokitika, Sept. 22. Constable Stephenson, stationed at Kanuri, reported this morning the horrible death by burning of a woman named Margaret Hutcheson, and her infant child, four months old. He states that David Hutcheson informed him that bis wife and child had been burned to death on the previous night, vt their house, on Tucker’s Flat, a short distance from Kanuri township. The constable visited the place, and found the remains of the woman’s body. Both , logs and one arm were burned away, and the head was partly consumed. No trace of tlic infant could be found. The house consisted of two rooms only. At eleven o’clock last evening David Hutcheson returned from Kanuri, and found his wife lying on a stretcher in the kitchen in the front room, and the baby in the cradle alongside. No conversation took place between them. He wont into the back room where there were five children asleep. He then retired to rest, leaving his wife and baby in the front room in which there was a small fire and a lighted kerosene lamp on the table. About 3 a.m. lie was awakened by a glare of light and smoko. He called to his wife, but got no reply. He then rushed into the front room, and found the roof and side walls all ablaze. He shook his wife but sbe never attempted to move. He could not get to the front door which was burned, and he he ran back to the bedroom, raised the window and had barely time to put out the five children, who escaped. By that time he found it impossible to get into the front room again. The neigh* hors endeavored to put out the fire but their efforts were useless, and the house and its contents were entirely consumed. An inquest will be held tomorrow morning.