FEARFUL TRAGEDY AT MELBOURNE. Husband and Wife Found Dead.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 99, 25 April 1885, Page 6

FEARFUL TRAGEDY AT MELBOURNE. Husband and Wife Found Dead.

A traoicdy was enacted in a house in Chessell-strcci, South Melbourne, at an early hour on Tuesday morning, 7th inst., whon a gas meter maker named Thomas K. Bowden murdered his wife and then shot himsolf. It appears that for some little time past Bowden, who 13 only a recent arrival in the colony, and who boio the character of being a steady, industrious man, had been suffering from a delusion that his house was to bo attacked by lanikius, and in order to resist them he provided himself with a bulldog revolver and the necessary ammunition. During Monday he became greatly excited in his manner, and told his wife that if tho larrikins entered tho houso he would kill her. Sho, becoming alarmed, endeavoured to have hor husband placed in custo ly, but failed. Various means wero then tried to induce Bowden to part with the revolver, but without avail. About one o'clock on Tuesday morning, a Mrs Roberts, living in the vicinity, heard scream? proceeding from the direction of Bowden 's houso. She awoke hor husband and told him of the circumatanco, but ho refused to believe that anything serious had happoned. Botween six and seven o'clock Mrs Lester, a boarding-house keeper, who had been in tho habit of calling the Bowdons, visited their houso as usual, but on knocking could get no answer. Constablo Dwyer, on being informed, made haste to the house, and after knocking in vain for admittance, scaled the fence at tho back, and entered the houso by breaking open tho kitchen window. On entering the front room, which was used as a bodroom, he found tho dead bodies of Bowden and his wife lying about three feet apart. Both wore only partially dressed, and thoro were no signs of a struggle having taken piano. In Bowden's right hand was a five-chambered English bulldog revolver, two chambers of which wero still loaded with ball cartridge. Tho woman had been shot in the left side of the nock, and the man in the mouth, the bullet penetrating the skull at the top. Constable Dwyer also found about 100 largesized cartridges in tho room.

The Government have granted £25 for a stone to be ejected in memory of tho men killed in action at Waerenga a-hika, and subscriptions are being collected at Qisborne in furtherance of the object. If silence be golden, dumb people ought to grow rich.