MRS KNORR'S CAREER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2613, 27 January 1894, Page 3

MRS KNORR'S CAREER.

The Age publishes the following : When Mrs Kuorr's case was being considered by the Executive Council, details of her career, prepared by Detective Sergeant Nixon, of the Criminal Investigation Department, were laid before it. Moat of the faota in the report, which has been very accurately oompiled, have already been made public, the main feature being to show that the woman has long been known as a criminal in Sydney and elsewhere, having frequently been convicted of larceny and other offences ; but the following details of her early life, obtained from her parents, will be read with interest. These particulars were sent out by our London correspondent some months ago, but it was deemed improper to publish them ati tUM because the case wan Mb j-ndlce. There can be no harm in publishing them now, Our" wrote in Deoembey last as follows : " A representative of the Ago has had au interview with the parents of the woman Frances Knorr. The father, William Sutton Thwaites, of 347, King's Road, Chelsea, is a tailor, who has been in business at the same address for many years. The family is highly reapeoted in the neighborhood. Both Mr Thwaites and his wife are advanced in years, and the news from Melbourne- has almost broken their hearts, Mr Thwaitea expresses himself as anxious to do anything in his power to ameliorate his daughter's unhappy position, but both ho and his wife refuse to believe in her guilt. The girl, who is the second eldest in the family, has been a thorn in their flesh for a good many years, but although she had been headstrong and self-willed, they had no occasion to cause themselves grave un- . eoeiuese until she tirat absented herdoU

[from home, about seven years ago. At ' that time she was between eighteen and nineteen." . " The Age representative, in a further interview with the lady superintendent of the home to which Frances Thwaites was sent, learnt further particulars. Thiß lady speakß highly of the Thwaites family, whom she haß known for many yearg. They are a musical family, and the girl Frances formerly sang in the church choir. Seven or eight years ago Frances became enamoured of a soldier, and eventually she became engaged to this man with her parents' consent. Suddenly she disappeared from home, and remained absent for some days, returning in a very dirty and neglected state. It was discovered that she had been staying with the Boldier, who subsequently left the neighborhood. Mr Thwaites, after keeping hia daughter at home for some time, feared the effect of her evil example on the younger children, and applied to the lady superintendent of the home referred to. This lady took the girl in as a paying inmate, and she speakß of her in kindly terms, and indeed all who knew her consider her a kind-hearted girl, and refuse to entertain the belief that she is guilty of the crime laid to her charge. The wife of the local Church of England clergyman, who was a visitor to the home, got the girl, it appears to confess to other departures from the paths of virtue than those in which the soldier was concerned, and she scolded the girl a good deal in cousequence. The result was that the superintendent was obliged to ask her father to take her back. This he did, and some time later it was decided to send the girl abroad. The migration was effected through the agency of the home. From letters received from Frances after her arrival in Melbourne, where she went to service, it was believed that she was leading a very respectable life; and when news of her marriage arrived the parents sent out presents and gave her material assistance. One fact, however, upon which stress is laid is that they could never receive a satisfactory account of who or what Knorr was, though one or two letters which he wrote rather prepossessed them in his favor. The father fears that he will have to give up business if his connection with the case gains publicity in the neighborhood, which it has not up to the present."