SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN DUNEDIN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 243, 16 March 1880, Page 2

SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN DUNEDIN.

Dunedin, March 14

One of the most horrible tragedies wlii'.h ever occurre: here happened this m.iruing in Cumberland street, when James Murray Dewar,alias, Grant, a butcher, in the employ of Mr Dornwell, of George street, was found dead, hia wife injured almost beyond hope of recovery, his child suffocated, and the bedroom on fire, a lighted candle having been placed under the bed. The deceased man was aged about 30 yeais, and had been in this colony nearly 22 years. His proper name was Dewar, but his mother (who resides in a house just behind his) having re-married a carpenter named Grant, lie adopted his stepfather's name. Between five and six o'clock this morning the milkman who supplies the family on making his customary visit to the house was startled by seeing smo'-o issuing from one of the front windows. He knocked loudly at the front door, and receiving no reply, raised an alarm, which brought some neighbors to tin scene, and subsequently a member of the Fiie Brigade,and Sergeant Dean and a constable. On the house being entered, Mrs Grant was discovered lying on the floor in her nightdress, with blood issuing from her head, an I quite unconscious. The bedroom was next visited, and it was found full of smoke.

Thers on the bed, lay Mr Gran£, with a severe wound on his head, evidently inflicted by an axe, which lay at and which bore marks of blood on it. The infant was also in bed apparently soffocated,the lower part of the mattress having been Bet fire to by a lighted candle, which was found alongside of it. Mrs Grant was then lifted from off the floor and carried into the sittingroom. Dr I\ r iven, who w:.s sent for, on seeing her condition ordered her removal to the Hospital. The tragedy must have been committed very early this morning, but by whom it was done whether it was the act of a stranger or of either of the Grants, is a question that tho police are now endeavouring, to j

solve. So far as we can learn nothing has been missed from the house, nor does anything in the other rooms appear to have been disturbed. The only suspicious circumstance is that the daor of the house was found to be open. The wounds on Grant's head and those on his wife appear to the unprofessional eye to negative the thecry of having been self inflicted, and there is the additional circumstance, vouched for by many people who knew the ctnple intimately, that they lived very happy lives. The strangest part of the whole affair is that uene of the neighbors, seme of whom livec 1 about twelve feet from Grant's house, heard even the slightest noise, and were only awoke by the alarm of fire, which from another source we learn was raised by a fireman %ho lives close by. The woman, who still lies unconscious at the Hospital, has three wounds on her head, causing a compound depressed fracture of the skull. One of the wounds is on the crown of the head, the second behind ?he right ear, and the third on the temple. The affair has caused great excitement.