A TOUCHING STORY.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 249, 24 March 1888, Page 8

A TOUCHING STORY.

ft A Uevdkk" at Aiatapu sends us the following interesting account of this tragedy, which has excited public interest m consequence of the confession of the man Carroll in Australia:— Sir, I was greatly surprised to read tho cablegram in last Wednesday's issue of the Stau, stating that a man had confessed to having murdered his sweetheart nineteen years ago. I well remember the circumstances and the great excitement there was over tho murder. Being, if I remember well, an orphan, the case of the poor girl excited great pity. The murder was committed at a place called KidbrookeLano, between Blackheath and Elthani (or, enlarging the area, between Deptford and Woolwich, as your report states), and was a place much frequented by persona on Sunday afternoons and evenuigs. A path ran along inside the hedge on one side of the mad, and it was while walking along this path that the murderer attacked the poor girl ; but he must have struck her more than one blow, for from the path to the middle of the road, where she was found, bore fearful evidence of the terrible struggle the poor girl had with her murderer. She was discovered early on Monday morning by a policeman going his rounds, and the only reply he could get to his questions was, "Oh, lob me die." Her head was terribly battered, and death soon put an end to her sufferings. Suspicion naturally fell on young Pook, for he had been keeping company with her, and he was arrested. Public feeling was very strong against him, as was also the evidence However, after u long trial, lie was acquitted, and people felt very disgusted, for they believed that a miscarriage of justice had taken place. A mob of people haunted his father's house for days, and a force of police had to guard the house from wreckage, and his effigy was carted I'ound the boiough of Greenwich, where he resided. A gentleman even went so far a3 to write a pamphlet called the " Eltham Tragedy Reviewed," in which he sought to show that according to the evidence, young Pook should have been hung. If Carroll's confession should turn out to be correct on his part, and I fancy it will, it shows how careful juries ought to be in convicting on circumstantial evidence. As I said before, the sad fati of poor Jane Maria Clouson caused a widespread feeling of pity, and it took a practical shape in the erection of a handsome tombstone to her memory. After the usual inscription setting forth her name and the mode of her death, were these words, which J think are touching : — "May God's qxeat pity touch his heart, and lead My murderer to confess his dreadful deod. So that when the secrets of all heait3are known, Truth and xepentance may alike be shown." I hope, Mr Editor, that we are, affceralapse of nineteen yeai>, to have this mystery cleared up, and the fetigma resting on the shoulder.-* of the innocent placed upon him that is guilty. Sore must have been the heart of the murderer these nineteen years. May he now truly repent, and if he should reach Heaven he will bo able to ask forgive)icos ot her whom he so cruelly slew. — I am, etc., Reader. Aratapu, March 19.