A FATHER ACCUSED OF THROWING HIS CHILD OVERBOARD. The Accused owns Property in Auckland.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 182, 11 December 1886, Page 1

A FATHER ACCUSED OF THROWING HIS CHILD OVERBOARD. The Accused owns Property in Auckland.

Upon the arrival of the ship Gainsborough from New York at Melbourne, the captain reported to the police that a passenger named Nicholls had thrown his infant daughter, age seven months, ovorboard with the connivance of his wife. The police have arrested both parties. The prisoner, Ernest J. Nicholls, was a second class passenger. He was a draper by trade. His wife, M*ho has been arrested for conspiring in the murder of the infant, says that her hueband underwent a painful operation in the Brooklyn Hospital, which so affected his head that ho wa3 confined for some time in the insane ward. She was a medical student at the hospital at the time. She denies all knowledge of the crime, and cays she does not know why her husband threw the child overboard, as he was very fond of it. Tho mate of the vessel swears that Nichollß, while walking the deck, suddenly threw the child into the water. Some of the crew aay that the a child accidentally fell out of tho arms of the accused. At the Williamstown Police Court Antonie lsTicholls was charged on tho sworn information of Captain M'Phail with having connived with her husband, Ernest J. Mcholls, softgoodaman, to murder their child, Ada Alice Mary Nicholl% aged 7 months and 3 weeks, on the 14th October last by throwing it

overboard. On the previous .day the husband had been presented on the capital charge and romanded until Friday next. The prisoners were the only passengers by the ship Gainsborough. Mrs Nicholla was remanded until the same date as> the male prisoner Mrs, Nicholla haa made a (statement to the effect that at the commencement of tha voyage, which waa undertaken with the double object of bettering her husband's position, and if popeible to restore hia shattered hoalth, they occupied the cabin for which, on arrival at Melbourne, they wore to pay £60 The captain had hia wife on board, who on the voyage gave birth to a child. Another female was the stewardess. Things went on all right tor some Httlo time, until bickeriDga between the women commenced — Mrs Me* Phai!, the stewardess— and the steward, Mrs Nicholls states, making uncomplimentary allusions to her, which she returned. A mischievous report was then spread about by some one that familiarities had taken place between her and one of the ship's officers. Although these reports wera totally untrue, they led to a scene between Mrs Nichols's husbanJ and herself, which resulted in the captain ordering them of the cabin. The mattrasses and bolsters were rudely thrown out on the open deck, and this so exasperated Nicholls that he threw them overboard at 4? o'clock in the morning. From that time she asserts their treatment was mosfe brutal. As her husband was a man of a most meek inoffensive temperament, she was in a measure compelled to act as protector for both. With regard to Niehollg having thrown the child overboard, Mrs Nicholls says that no one could have loved! in more dearly than they both did. Though small, the child wae strong and healthy but it was cross at this period through teethingt Had they wished to be rid of it they could have easily disposed of it in some way before leaving New York the city of undiscovered crimes She could* sho said, have it in some area or verandah, where it would have been picked up and protected. If she had thought her husband had for a moment contemplated its death she would have kept the baby entirely under her Ovvn control. Indeed she could not bo but persuaded that her husband was as entirely innocent as herself of any wilful intention to throw the child overboard, and this opinion was showed by the whole of the crew, from Mr Borg, the ohiof mate, down to tho youngest apprentice. Her husband'had always been a sober, honest, thrifty fellow, and nearly threa year& previous had occupied an excellent position in Sydney, where he was at pieeent possessed of property. Mrs Nicholls further stated that her father, M. Heiber, was some years ago the Gerrran consul at the Cape of Good Hope, where ho died in 1881. Mrs Nicholls has in her posse ia icn a quantity of memoranda of the chief incidents of the voyage, together with a quantity of paper* showing the possession of land in both Sydney and Auckland, to the value of over £1,000, acquired during her husband's former residence. The parties were married at New York city on the 27th January, 1835, by the Rev. M. Deems. Mrs Nicholls is depcribed as " Antonie, second daughter of the late C. A. Herher, Esq., and his wife nee Glissman," Her husband, Ernest James Nicholls, junior, ia the son of Mr E. J. Nicholls, solicitor, of Lewis, England. Mr Nicholls has excellent, testimonials from his New York employers, MeasTg. Alberfc Haaga and Waldburger, successors to Oscar Deliele and Co., manufacturers and importers, of 58 and 60 Workstreet. Information of the Nicholls's unplearant predicament has been forwarded to their Sydney solxcitcr.