A GREAT CRIME.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 91, 21 August 1913, Page 6

A GREAT CRIME.

THE KABMATA TRAGEDY. INQUEST AT INGLEWOOD. (“Post” Special.) This morning, after a week of excitement and gossip, with gruesome details following thick and fast on tho hoels of Tragedy, Inglewood assembled in numbers to hear some impressions from the lips of the surviving members of one of the most mysterious crimes that have occurred iu the annals of the New Zealand police. Were it posiblo to print even half of the stories of assumption and suggestions in connection with the Kaimata murder, columns of the Post would be filled for the next week or so. There was an air of expectancy oppressive for a time, over all tho proceedings, and the sight of two women amid the morbid throng added to the human touch. Though timed to sit at 10.30, the clock showed a quarter to eleven before the Coroner, Mr W. G. K. Kenrick, S.M., took his seat in the Courtroom. Inspector Wilson (Wanganui), Detective Boddam (New Plymouth), and Senior-Sergeant Haddrell (New Plymouth) wore in attendance, and ScrIgoant Haddrell conducted the inquiry on behalf of the police. Mr H. J. M. Thomson (Inglewood) was present on behalf of Mrs Virgin. The presence of Miss Dorothy Julian and her brother, Master Verner, gave a sad and solemn tone to the gathering. These witneses were accomrnoIdated in a private room off the main Court until called to the witness box. The first evidence called related to the

FATEFUL HOUSE. Edward Taylor, builder, Inglewood, said he knew the plan of the house at Kaimata, having built the additions to same, and he recognised the plans put in as being correct. 'THE POLICE. Senior-Sergeant Haddrell, of New Plymouth, said that on the morning of the 14th August in company with Sergeant-Detective Boddam, Constables Fitzgibbon and Egan he went put to the scone of the affair at Kaimata. The house was burnt down and there was no trace of what might have been the origin of the fire. Examining the, ruins of what in the plans was the dining room, he found on a wire mattress two sets of charred bones. Those were separate from each other. They were put aside and later were examined by Dr. Nutting. A little further in the ruins and to the right another mattress was. found corresponding to the position of a bedrom as marked on the plans, and the re-, mains there were also carefully reimoved and examined by Dr. Nutting. The remains were certified to by Dr. Nutting as two male human beings, and that on the latter stretcher a? a female. The remains were viewed by the Coroner himself as Magistrate in Stratford on the following day. One of the occupants of the house on the night pf, the 9th, namely Virgin, was still missing, and although every effort had been made to. find him no success had attended the police. A CO-WORKER. Frederick M. Doughty, driver in the New Plymouth branch of the New Zealand Express Company, said he !knew Frank Smith, who was also in the employ of the Company. On the 11th of August Smith said he was going to shift Mr Virgin’s furniture out to Warea. On the same day he left with a lorry and five horses. On Wednesday he again saw him and he said he was shifting Mr Julian’s stuff to Kaimata. Smith left about 8 o clock on the morning of the 14th. That was the last occasion on which ho saw Smith. On the loth he took charge of the lorry and horses at Kaimata, the load thereon, three-parts loaded, being, he believed, the property of Mr Virgin. Witness recognised a photograph produced as one of Frank Smith. A GOOD WITNESS.

Verner Edward Julian then went into the box. Verner is not a big boy for his ago, but he proved himself in the box to ho an intelligent and observant little fellow. He gave his evidence clearly and concisely and unhesitatingly, yet in a mannerly way that won tor him the admiration of all. Plainly, hut cleanly attired, with short cropped light hair, the auburn locks being prominent on a fine forehead ; and bearing slight marks of an ugly crack over the left eye in the shape of discoloration of the skin, he stood up in the box as unconcerned as a man of the world. At times his words were sad indeed. “Dad,” “Gladys,” and “Dorothy,” told more plainly than anything else of the ■family home life, and of brotherly love. For, after all, blood is thicker than water. Yet “Frank” (as he only knew one of the victims), and “Mr” Virgin proved his upbringing tc bo good. All through, Verner carried the sympathy and appreciation of the crowd. Asked the Coroner: How old are you?—Fourteen. Verner said, on his oath, he had been living with his father at Warea. Proceeding: I know Virgin, he came down to our farm about a month ago. ' With father and Mr Virgin, we went all over the ‘farm, and had a good look round. I knew that father was i going to leave the farm and go to .Kaimata. Father and Mr Virgin i apoearecl to -be on good terms at the time. The man who came down to L'.’ft the furniture was known to me

as “Frank,” who took the loan away the day after ho came. On the Tuesday my sister and 1 started away for Kaimata driving a mob of cattle. We got as far as Oakum that night, and reached Kaimata <m Wednesday night. On the way out on Wednesday we were overtaken by father and my sister, Gladys Eva. 1 told him we were getting on all right, and they wont on. 1 next saw father about two miles from Mr A irgin’s place at the Junction Road. The waggon with the driver “frank” was at, the farm when we arrived. When we arrived, Gladys, the driver, father, and Mr Virgin were there. The time, then, would be about 7 p.m. They had all our stuff off the waggon and inside the house, and some stuff belonging to Mr A’ii-gin, was on the waggon. Air A'irgin, the , driver, and Gladys had had their tea before we arrived, and father, Dorothy, and 1 then had ours. Mr A'irgin left the premises about five minutes after we got there and returned in about half an hour’s time.

’ Before we went to bed that night, my sister Gladys played the piano and Dorothy sang. Air A’irgin and dad made a case to put some of his furniture iu, “Frank” and 1 were sitting on the sofa. Father and Mr A’irgin were talking together, and they appeared to be good friends. Later in the evening, father made the beds, and the girls said they wore tired and wanted to go to bed. I went to bed first, being in about hallpast eight. Two f the beds were mattresses on the floor, and I slept on a kapoc mattress on the floor. “Frank” and my father slept on the other bed In the same room with me. There was a sofa between the two sleeping places. (Looking at the plans) I was sleeping in the dining room. Father slept about here (cross), and I was sleeping here (cross) against the wall. (It was stated that the remains of the beds were removed before tho doctor arrived). I helped father to make the beds. The beds would be about (cross) on the plan. Sergeant Haddrell explained to the Coroner just how A’eruer had marked the plan. Proceeding; The, door when opened bumped up against the’ girls’ bed. Father’s bed was a wire mattress on the floor. The bed-room was not in total darkness after tho candle was put out. There was a little light coming iu through the cream blinds on tho windows. I saw and heard father and “Frank” going to bed. 1 woke up with my two sisters screaming out. They wore singing out for “Dad.” A little while after a man came walking into our room olf the verandah door. He walked up at tho back of my father’s bed and lie 5 struck down on it towards the head of tbe bed. It seemed as if there was a thud. It didn’t hit the floor. I don’t know what it struck. Om blow was struck, and then 1 heard someone,sing out; “I’ll get up! I’ll got up!” It wasn’t my father’s voice. It seemed like “Frank’s” voice, AA’hilo ho was hitting him I got under the sofa.

There were other blows after the voice called out. There was no sound of voices after. I crawled under the sofa. I never felt any blow. This man came and felt where L had been laying along the wall. I heard peculiar apises while 1 was under the sofa. I heard two men making gurgling sounds in their throat. The sounds came from the bed in our room. The man left the 'room and went into the kitchen. Then I crawled out from under the sofa and tried to rouse my father. 1 shook him and said “Dad.” There was no answer?—No.

1 know it was father I shook. 1 know there was someone else there in the bed; it was the driver. I noticed when I got up there was blood on the floor beside the bed and on my father's Face. 1 got some (flood on my arm and on my legs. I don’t know whether there was any on the shirt; 1 haven’t seen it since. It was light enough to see the blood. I ran out of the room on to the verandah. I saw the other man, hut he never spoke. I noticed nothing peculiar about the house then.

No lights anywhere?—No. When I was out on the verandah 1 saw through the doorway a light in the kitchen. It seemed to he coming hack to the dining room. The light was something like a candle—not so very big. I then ran down behind the trees alongside the path entrance. I pulled my white shirt off as I was going down and threw it under a tree. I did it because he would not see mo if ho followed me. I had a dark brown shirt underneath. I got over the fence: there was a stump down at the pine trees and I got behind there. I waited about five seconds to see if 1 could see him coming. I got over the track and down the road. When I looked back after I was halfway up the road to Death’s, there appeared to he a blaze in the room f came out of. I went to Mr Death’s place. Dorothy came to Death’s about live minutes after me. I knew Mr Death’s place; I had been there before. I told Mr Death what had happened. When I got to Mr Death’s, f found I was hurt myself. 1 was hurt above the right eye and there was some skin elf the hack of my left hand. What time in the morning was it?— When I. got over to Mr Death’s it was about twenty past three. f heard the clock strike half-past. I did not see the clock. My sister told me it was half-past three. I am certain it was a man in the room, I couldn’t see to identify him—who it was. Mr Virgin was wearing light tan Romeos, and made hardly any noise in moving about. When I got out it was not very dark, clouds over the moon. I went over to the place with Detective God-

dam and showed him the places of the beds in the ruins'. .Mr Thomson: You went to bed at B.3o?—Yes. Do you know yourself what happened to Mr Virgin --No, J don’t; 1 heard him walking about, but 1 was soon asleep. What was he doing when you went to bed?—He was reading the paper out in the kitchen. And that was the last you saw of him ?—Yes. This man in the bedroom. Did he speak at all ?—No. Mo words were spoken?—No. Do you feel in. your own mind that the screaming out woke you, or that it was the result of being struck?— 1 think it was the squealing out. When yon left the house you wore frightened and excited? —(Hesitatingly) Not exactly frightened. .Might it not have been the scrambling through the fence that marked you ?—No. Sergeant Haddrell: The photograph Who is it?—-The driver “Frank.” Mr Thomson to the Coroner: Can ho swear that the man in the bed was the driver?—He has already sworn that ho saw his father and the driver going to bod. The Coroner: Do yon know how you got the injuries?—l never got it outside—l never knocked against anything. At 12.30 the enquiry adjourned for, lunch, to resume at 1 45.