MELANCHOLY TRAGEDY.

Southland Times, Issue 1652, 22 October 1872, Page 3

MELANCHOLY TRAGEDY.

— m On Saturday afternoon last a terrible tragedy wns enacted within a few miles of Invercargill. A woman named Caroline Vitting, the wife of Carl Yitting, residing at Chalmers's old saw- mill on the Bay Boad, left her home, taking with her the four youngest children, a girl aged nine years, and three hoys, aged respectively eight and five years and eleven months, saying that tbey would go and look whether the cow had calved. There does not appear to have been anything in tbe woman's manner as she left the bouse to excite a suspicion that she meditated a crime. After tbey had been away for some considerable time, the girl returned, and told her eldest sister, who waa at home, that her mother had thrown baby and the two boys into the "Waikivi creek ; that she had thrown the little girl herself into the creek also, but tbat she managed j to get ort while the mother was chasing \ Fred (the eldest ofthe three boys), and j she then ran home. The eldest girl and i the child who had escaped death so narrowly, immediately went together to the scene of the occurrence, but saw nothing of their mother, although they observed footmarks and other traces of the struggle which took place on the bank ofthe creek, and found some clothing belonging to the drowned children. They then returned to their home, and told three woodcutters, named Sinclair, Cashel, and Trainer, who were working cloße by, what had happened. Tbese men lost no time in proceeding to the place, and near the brink of the creek, which waa high in flood, running over its banks, found the bodies of the two eldest boys lying at the bottom. Tbey recovered them and placed them on the bank, and some yards further down, discovered the body of the baby lying almost on the surface of the water, in the centre of the stream, where it had been caught, after floating down some yards, by some rails which were lying across the creek. The children were quite dead, although the baby was warm. The men left tbe bodies on the bank, and proceeded to Invercargill, where they informed the police of what had occurred. Sub-Inspector Fox and Sergeant Fleming immediately pro ceeded to Vitting's, arriving there about nine o'clock in the evening. Thence they started on foot, accompanied by tbe father and eldest son, and reached tbe locality of the tragic event about ten o'clock. The bodies were carried back to the father's house, through the busb, by Vitting, Sub- Inspector Fox, and Sergeant Fleming. There could be no search made for the wretched woman that night, but at daylight next morning a party of about twelve started to scour the bush. Tracks were found leading eastwards from the spot where the bodies were discovered, but owing to tbe severity of the hail showers and rain they soon became obliterated. About three o'clock in the afternoon, Mr Samuel Morton, who had his dogs with him, came upon the object of their search, crouching down among the scrub in the bush at the hack of Mr Russell's house. He took theYwoman to Mr Russell's, where she was arrested by Sub-Inspector Fox. "When arrested she appeared to be totally indifferent to all that was taking place around her. She sometimes exclaimed '* Albert," the name of her eldest son, and enquired anxiously for a bag containing eels. She jalso asked for ber Bible, saying that she thought she had left it on the mantelpiece. The unhappy woman was conveyed to the gaol at Invercargill, and she has since remained in the same depressed and indifferent condition, making no intelligible statement. The inquest takes place to-day at ten o'clock at Vitting's house, before the Coroner, Dr Monckton. Various rumors as to the cause of tbe sad event are in circulation. It appears certain that the couple had lived unhappily together, and that the woman had been very unkindly treated by her husband, whose conduct seems to have preyed upon her mind. j