A DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 202, 23 February 1912, Page 7

A DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

. THE NORMANKY SENSATION. TRAGIC DETAILS. A WIRE THAT CAME TOO LATE. Tragic details, interwoven in a story of naintful •domestic estrangement, were unfolded at the inquest held at Norma nby on Tuesday last concerning the suicide of a well-known resident, in the person of Alexander Bannatyne Stewart A particularly sad and distressing feature of the evidence waa the fact (ao eording to several witnesses) that but for the delay and non-delivery to deceased of an urgent telegram, bearing upon his-relations with his estranged wife, the whole tragedy would have been averted Among those who gave evidence at tin inquest was Charles Paine, fanner, Normanby, who stated that .deceased was a married man, but Mrs. Stewart had not been at home since December 7 last. Deceased had been visiting witness' house every day since his separation from hi» wife, and on the day (Monday) of his death, when he had spoken of a telegram which he had received. He last saw him alive at 1.10 p.m. on Monday. Paine detailed the finding of the bodj of the deceased in one of the bedrooms of his (Paine's) house. Witness also ventured the opinion that family .troubles were the cause of the rash act, and added that deceased wa's not on Monday. Indeed, to witness' knowledge he had had no intoxicating drink for the past six days. There was ab- : solutely no truth in the idea that Stew- I art ill-treated his wife—a kinder nun j never lived. !

THAT TELEGBAM. Ernest George Simons, railway clc ' at Normanby, deposed that at 1.37 p.m. on Monday he received an urgent telegram from deceased, which had been handed in at Hawera at 12.30 p.m. Witness had taken no steps to deliver it, as shortly after receipt of it Mr. Graves arrived and told witness.,that Mr, Stew-, art was dead.' (The message was signed "Graves." Witness also mentioned receiving a prior telegram at 11.22 a.m., which he had personally ; delivered to Mr. Stewart at 10 to 1. The reason it was not delivered before was that witness did not consider therq was urgent hurry for the ".'',' , ; ..'.'■

Added weight to the ■ "telegram theory" was given by the evidence of Elliott L'Estfarige .Barton,: soljjciior*,' .of. Hawera. He stated thaVhe,'had known Mr. Stewart, since he came to the colony in 1897... In 'December of last year.de-, ceased consulted witness "regarding a family trouble, and from that out, with the exception of some ten days which witness spent -up the mountain, witness saw him twice or thrice a week. Mr.' Stewart was very much worried and harrassed over the whole affair of his wife leaving hiiri and taking the children witt.her...'HIS CHRISTMAS EVE.'

During the whole .of that ti«e,with the exception of tho first two or, three' days after his, wife had left hihj, and immediately after Jie, had been served with summonses by his ■ wife on 'Christmas Eve, whicih he felt ve,ry those exceptions, .witness never noticed any sighs of drink about him, and evenou those occasions he could' still -be described as quite sober, sensible and able to converse quite sensibly upon the matter in hand. A great .deal* of n,egotia> tion took-place.with* view to reconciliation, and with regard to,an. alternative . proposal for a separation by deed .oh February 14. All these appeared to have come to an end. That evening witnep= •".••■ V~: Stewart at his house, win n lu; told witness, in answer to some remarks witness had made to him,, that there would never be any deed of separation signed by him, and that,.lie would never agree '. to a separation. When witneis mentioned the possibility of the matter coming on in Court for hearing on the following Monday, deceased said it would never come on for hearing, and there would never be any order in this world. From/what deceased said then and throughout all tlie interviews, witness was impressed with the deceased's profound love and affection for his wife. He would hear nothing against her, and believed nothing against her. He _wo,iild not permit any steps to be taken to defend hiscase or- to' question anything his wife might say, though he strenuously denied to witness at' all times that he had ever been unkind to his wife or extended any violence to her. 'On the morning of February 15 witness felt so disturbed over what Mr. Stewart had said the previous day that witness felt it his duty to communicate the facts to Mr. Sellar, who was' acting for Mrs. Stewart, so that he (Mr. Sellar) might let her know. Continuing, "Mr. Barton said that on the evening of the 15th he had again come out to see Mr. Stewart, and found him very depressed, but witness buoyed him up with the hope that witness would yet be able to negotiate something satisfactory with his (Stewart's) wife. On the next night (Friday) witness again saw Mr. Stewart, and in the meantime witness had some communication with Mr. Graves, which gave witness some hope of an accommodation being effected between Stewart and his wife. Witness came out again to Mr, Stewart, and buoyed him up again. On Saturday witness again heard from Mr! Graves, at whose house Mrs. Steward had stayed on the Friday night, and, in consequence of what Mr. Graves told him witness, without unduly raising Mr. Stewart's hopes, told him there was a possibility of his getting his children back. He was comparatively happy at this possibility, and told witness to ask Mr. Graves to come out and see him (Stewart) on Sunday. Mr. Graves did so. On Saturday night, when witness left Mr. Stewart, it was with the understanding that he would be in Hawera on Monday morning by 9 o'clock, in the hope that he might be able to fix things up before the time appointed for the hearing of the case (10.30 a.m.) On all these three days witness was certain Mr. Stewart was free from all traces of drink, and' on the Saturday, in consequence of what had been circulated concerning Mr. Stewart's. alleged drinking habits (quite falsely, in witness' opinion).

HIS DREAD OF COURT PROCEEDINGS. Witness added that on the Monday morning Stewart did not appear at 9, as promised, but witness received a letter from him. The letter, whieh was produced and read, referred to the Court proceedings, and said that Mr. Graves would come out and bring deceased in to if necessary. The Hawera postmark on that letter was 10 a.m, on February 10. Witness received it shortly before goin.<? over to the Court at 10.30. He showed it to Mr. Sellar, and asked him to consent to adjourn the case until 2 p.m. He refused, and opposed the application when witness made it to the Court, but it was granted, and the case was adjourned until 2 p.m. This was about 11 a.m., and about five minutes later a telegram was sent to Mr. Stewart from witness' oflice, as follows: "Case adjourned till 2. Come in without fail.—Barton." Shortly after that witness saw Mr. Graves, who handed witness a letter from Stewart, as follows: "I have written Mrs. Stewart and Sellar asking them to withdraw the case from Court, and staling that I would sign a nrivate separation prc\er in any terms Mrs. Stewart wishes. I ask you, as my friend, to keep me from coming into Court, or even Haivera. I know that

•my mother would wish things done privately.' Do tlhis for me, won't you, and see me this evening if possible '!" In the first negotiations about the deed of separation, Mr. Stewart'* instructions to witness were to allow Mrs. Stewart £260 a year, and in every way to treat her with the utmost consideration.

I HEART-RENDING MISTAKE. The late delivery, continued Mr. Barton, of witness' telegram to Mr. Stewart evidently led him to believe that negotiations ibeing carried on through Mr. Graves had failed, and that the case was coming on in Court, whereas the reverse was the case, if Mr. Stewart had only known it. Witness was convinced that in shooting himself Stewart djd not do it to shelter himself from anything that he was ashamed of, but that he had fully determined, on the one hand, that he would not say one word against his wife in Court or elsewhere, and, on the other, that he would not go into Court to be dishonored by his wife or anyone else, which, he thought, would occur unless* he defended himself. In witness' opinion deceased's death was totally due to bis wife having left him, and not to any drinking habits whatever, and, further, from what witness knew of Stewart's character and mind, witness believed him absolutely incapable of cruelty to his wife. EFFORTS AT RECONCILIATION. Another witness was Herbert Graves,

commission agent, Hawera, who stated that he had known Mr. Stewart since 1897, and had visited him perhaps a doztm times during his late trouble. During the three days previous to Stewart's, death witness was doing his best to bring about some form of reconciliation between Stewart and his wife. On Monday, 19th inst., witness reached Stewart's house about 10 a.m., and was discussing witness' recent interview with Mrs,, . Stewart. Stewart was very worried at j feeling that he would have attend J the Court, and begged witness to make a final attempt to brings about a private deed of separation on any terms acceptable to Mrs. Stewart. This was mainly for the sake of his mother in Scotland. Stewart' wrote three lutters (to Mrs. Stewart, Mr. Sellar and Mr. Barton) and' gave them to witness to do the best he could, impressing on witness tha,t the matter was more important to him : (Stewart) than witness could conceive. Witness left Stewart shortly after 11 and was with Mr. Sellar until a quartet to 12, during which time Mr. Sellar and witness ha dagreed as to a private deed of-separation. Witness impressed on Mr. Sellar the urgency of preparing it -quickly and giving it to witness' to take out and ! get signed. Mr. Sellar said it would be ready by 1 o'clock. Witness then delivered Stewart's letter to Mr. Barton, whereupon Mr. Barton told witness he had wired Stewart to bs in without fail at 2 o'clock. Upon leaving Mr. Barton, witness went straight to the post office and despatched an urgent telegram to Mr. Stewart, which witness then handed-uribpened to the Coroner. The telegram had not been delivered to Stewart. It was timed 12.30 at Hawera, and read:"Wait, am coming with deed.— Graves." It.was received in Normanby at 1.37 p.m." Witness received the private deed of separation in duplicate from Mr. Sellar at about 1.10 p.m., and having to .make another stop, on the road, witness arrived at Normanby at .1.30. Witness 1 , walked' into Stewart's house, which was open, calling out for him by j name. Hearing someone calling at the back witness'walked along the passage { and was. met by Charles Paine, Hrho told witness that Stewart was about somewhere «nd ; had to go into Hawera. Wit-; I'rress'sa'id: "There is no need for him to |go in; try and find him." Paine returnj ed almost ,at once, saying, "I think somethingjhas happened to him." SubaeI qucntiy his body was found.

' '. ", THIS FATAL "IF." Witness adde* that he would like to point-out that being with Stewart up to 11.5 a.m.l on. the. 19th inst., that had Mr. Barton's-telegram been delivered within an houfv from the time of its despatch, Stewart could not have confused its receipt ,a,s; anything to do with witness' mission. Also i£ witness' urgent telegram despatched at 12.80 p.n),, had reached hands by Oo p.m. that Stewart would have been alive today; and witness hoped the Coroner would or.de/ • searching- enquiries to be made as to the negligence in delivery of these messages. There ,-was no sign of drink upon deceased when witness spoke to him at 11.5 a.m. on Monday, 19th inst., but he was worried as to possible Court proceedings. He did not think that Stewart could have noticed on the telegram' the time at which it had been sent. n< ,

According to "George A. Hadler, police constable at Xormanby,' a book (produced) was found lying beside deceased, and a photograph of Mrs. Stewart (produced) was also discovered lying on the floor near deceased. He alao found a letter in a draw. Witness had known deceased for seven years, and during the ten months he had been in Nonnanby had seen him twice weekly. He had not, on any occasion, seen Stewart noticeably the worse forjiquor. Stewart had always appeared to witness to be very kind to and fond of his wife and children.

The jury returned the following verdict: "That the deceased, Alexander Bannatyne Stewart, met his death by a bullet wound, self-inflicted, whilst suffering from mental distress caused through domestic troubles."