SUICIDE OF A BARMAID.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1146, 28 February 1884, Page 3

SUICIDE OF A BARMAID.

The inquest on Olga Stenesse was holdinWellingion on Monday. Thomas Gordon, chemist, said that Miller, tbe supposed husband of deceased, called at his shop on Saturday afternoon, and said that a friend of his had taken half a box of " Rough on Rats," and he wished to know if such a do~e would prove fatal. Witness replied, "Yes," and t"ld Mil'er to no for a doctor at once. Miller replied that the person who had taken it was a well-known person in town, and did not require medical assistance. Witness gave him an emetic. In about an hour Miller returned and said the emetic had acted. Witness had told him to go for Dr Gillon at once previous to this. Miller ha'i led witness to believe that the deceased was a man, but at this stage he informed witness to the contrary. A person, a friend of Miller's, was in deceased's room just before she died. Miller was there also. She sprang up in bed and exclaimed to Miller, "Have I not loved you, Willie ?'' Miller replied, "Yes, my darling, I know you have," and kissed her. Witness then asked the deceased why she had taken the poison, and she replied that she did not think of what she was doing. William Thomas Mil'er said he was a cotton planter. He first met deceased in June, at Auckland, who was there as pianiste to Kudarz and Co.'s travelling performers. Witness and deceased came to Wellington from Auckland under the name of Mr and MrsHitherington. On arriving in Wellington they took their proper names. They were not married. Miller admitted that his name had appeared in the Auckland papers in connection with a seduction case, and also that he had given her poison, obtained in Auckland, to kill re's. After she had taken the poison she hid the key of her bedroom and told witness she was all right. Directly witness promised not to go for a doctor deceased opened the doer, and witness ran for a chemist.

The jury returned a verdict " That deceased met her death by poison administered by her own hands, not believing at the time in the deadly nature of the compound." A rider was added that W. R. Mdler deserved severe censure for not calling in medical aid earlier.

An Auckland telegram states that Olga Stenesse was barmaid a* the Auckland Hotel. She lost her situation because tho publican disapproved of her flirting with Miller, who hails from Fiji, anr 1 came to New Zealand with a considerable sum of money.

Mr Skey, Government analyst, reports that he found sufficient arsenic in the stomach of Olga Stenesse to kill an adult human bein<?. He also reports that " Rough on Rats" is almost wholly composed of arsenic.