THE PAPAKAIO MURDER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81907, 19 December 1906, Page 2

THE PAPAKAIO MURDER.

THE T'IIIAL OF FINDIAY. Per Press Association. Duneuin, December 18. The trial of John Findlay, for the limrder of William Hay lvcnnic, schoolmaster at Fapakaio, on Urd October, was commenced at the Supreme Court tliis inoriiin<». Tlie Crown Prosecutor, in opening tlii! ease, said it rusted largely Upon presumptive evidence. His speech, in outlining the facts in possession of the police, occupied an hour and threequarters. He said the one other ease of the kind heard in the colony was the charge of murder by Ullis, who was convicted solely oil circumstantial evidence. In this case the motive predominated, and he would show that the motive was robbery. Deceased was in the enviable position of being a man without an enemy. Counsel then described how the deceased was shot through the head while asleep, and detailed the movements of the prisoner,' who fabricated his identity all through and impersonated a runaway sailor oil' the Port Stephens, lie afterwards said he came down the road with a runaway sailor. It would be shown that for three and a-half hours prisoner had been hoveling about watching llennhi's house. JUitur accused actually went to the house and saw the girl who cleaned out the place, and said lie was canvassing for baker's orders, asking who Hennie was and how many lived in the house. The evidence for the prosecution was not completed when the Court rose for the day.