HOKITIKA.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3863, 17 May 1881, Page 2

HOKITIKA.

This day

Mrs McGahey, the wife of the man who now lies in Hokitika gaol charged with the murder of Bell, arrived in town by coach from Christchurch on Saturday last, and soon after her arrival she went to the Police Station and confessed to Sergt. Moller that she had wilfully set fire to her husband's house at Larry's Creek in the month of December last. It appears from her story that funds were subscribed to enable her to leave Reef ton, and that she went to Westport, and from that port she took ship for Lyttelton, where she obtained an engagement as servant to. a family in Amberley. She was however constantly disturbed by apparitions of her husband and the murdered man Bell; the ghostly visitors urged upon her to make atonement, and as she could not bear their continued reproaches she determined to come back to the Coast by the first opportunity to deliver herself up to justice. Sergt. Moller therefore arrested her upon a charge of arson. She also informed Sergt. Moller that she had asked the spirit •of the murdered man whether she should take her own life, but was advised to come over here and confess what she had done. Her statement was minute, and she said she had walked twelve miles in order to burn down her house, which she resolved should never become the property of the mortgagee, after all her hard work to make a home for herself.. It is clear that the unfortunate creature's brain must be temporarily affected by the shocking events with which her name is connected. She was brought up at the Resident Magistrate's Court on a charge of arson, and remanded on the application of the Inspector of Police for eight days, to undergo medical treatment, the accused being in a very weak state of health.