THE WHANGAREI TRAGEDY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 311, 12 October 1915, Page 4

THE WHANGAREI TRAGEDY.

A SAD HOLIDAY VISIT. "' Mrs Oxle y, vri£e and mother of the? Mapuna Hotel tragedV victims, in the "Wlhangarei' district, North Auckland, was it appears, on a fortnight's holiday in the Wanganui district, and last week she and her youngest son spent' with native relatives np river. Mrs Oxiey received a letter from her husband on Saturday, the contents of which disclosed hi 3 intention of ending: his life, and of coujrse at the time the sad lettejr reached her the grim tragedy had been enacted. Tha letter "was written 'in affectionate terms, on October 2nd, and apparently at the time Mr Oxiey had no intention of murdering his son, as he asked in the letter that Ibis wife might divide between the two boys certain keepsakes virion |he forwarded and which he wanted them to have. He also asked that- the mother might never let the boys know what he had done. It was quite obvious, therefore, that the poo£" man at the time had noother ntention than that of ending Ms. own life only. Mrs Oxley was communicated with by the police, but it was only late in the afternoon when she arrived at Wanganui, ?nd that she read the complete details of the tragedy. The blow she received, it is needless to say, was. a very severe one. The boy was a biright little fellow, and she had left him behind to finish; a test examination at school. The cause of the tragedy she assigned to ill-luck which mTO have preyed on the mind of her/jhusband. They had. she said, gone into the Mapuna Hotef j enterprise, hoping to make money. Instead, it proved a financial failure and! ; this had caused both her husband and I lierselr to be much worried. As a mattier of fact, she had come to Wanganui j on a health vir-.r. "This," she observed J mournfully, ,: i s the end of it. Husband. j son and heme ali gone." Mrs Qxley : l-has one Utile bay left.