TRAGEDY IN WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8357, 13 February 1907, Page 5

TRAGEDY IN WELLINGTON.

A GIRL SHOT. A YOUNG MAN ARRESTED. Yesterday morning, at about twenty minutes past six, a girl named Eleanor Pearl Axup was fatally shot in the dining-room of her mother's home, 92 Abel Smith Street, Wellington. Medical aid was immediately summoned, and Drs Pigeon and Boyd quickly arrived, but the victim's injuries were mortal. She died a few minutes after seven o'clock. The inmates of the house and neighbours were alarmed by the report of three revolver shots. When the dining-room was entered it was found that Miss Axup was prostrate on the floor, with her feet just inside the door. Against the other wall a young man was lying, with a foot under a foot of the girl's. A small revolver was near his right hand. The shot lodged in the girl's brain, behind the left ear. Of the other two shots heard, one passed through a corner of a Venetian blind on a window opposite the man's position on the floor and was embedded in the sash. The other cut a hole in the floor just by the man's right side. This shot had evidently been fired while the man was prone. The man's name is Claude Paget, a thick-set person, under medium height, about thirty years of age, rather fair in complexion, with a brown moustache. He seemed to be injured when fiist seen on the floor, but he was not wounded. Paget was immediately arrested, and was removed to the Lambton Quay police station. From enquiries made at the Police Station, it appears that the tragedy was reported shortly before 6.30 a.m. by a young man named Paget, a brother of the accused man, who resides at the boarding-house kept by Mrs Axup in Abel Smith Street. When Mrs Axup got up yesterday morning she found Paget sitting in the kitchen, and asked him what he was doing there. Paget, who is stated to have been "keeping company" with the victim of the tragedy, replied that he had decided to go to San Francisco, and as he would be leaving very shortly he had come to say "Good-bye." He next asked where Eleanor was, and Mrs Axup replied that her daughter was in the dining«room, just across the passage. Paget, a few seconds after-. wards, left the kitchen and walked into the dining-room. A short time elapsed before Mrs Axup heard two shots fired in quick succession, and as she rushed to the dining-room she heard a third. She found her daughter lying on the floor in a dying condition, and Paget was also in a prostrate condition, and apparently unconscious, with a revolver by his side.

TW accused man, Claude Paget, has been working at his trade (carpentering) in Wellington since his arrival from Sydney a short time ago. He has a number of relatives residing in Wellington, including a mother and brothers, and they have noticed that he has had fits of moodiness of late. It is said that he lost his wife and two children in Sydney some two years ago, and his moodiness increased since that time. Paget lodged with Mr Collier at Berhampore, and had taken Miss Axup to visit the Colliers on several occasions. He appeared to be very fond of the girl, whom he spoke of as his sweetheart. The Colliers got rather anixous on Monday night when their lodger did not put in an appearance, but on making enquiries of a brother, with whom the accused worked, the brother said accused had informed him that he would not be home that night, as he had to go to the dentist's to get some teeth extracted. Accused was brought before Dr. McArthur, S.M., charged with murdering Eleanor Pearl Axup. He looked dazed, and walked into the dock with his head hanging down, and took no notice whatever of his surroundings. Sub-Inspector O'Donovan asked for a remand until the 18th instant. The application was granted, and accused was removed to the cells. THE INQUEST. By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, February 12. An inquiry into the death of Eleanor Pear) Axup, the victim of today's tragedy was held this afternoon, by the District Coroner, the jury returning a verdict that death was caused by a bullet fired by Claude Pagett. The evidence given by the girl's mother, a brother of the accused, and others, showed that Pagett had visited the house on the previous evening in a state of intoxication. He did not then see the girl. This morning he entered the kitchen at about 6 o'clock, and when the deceased came downstairs and went into the dining-room he followed her. A few minutes after were heard, and the girl's mother rushed into the room and saw her daughter and Pagett lying on the floor. The former had a wound behind her left ear. Pagett was -i unconscious. The girl died within an hour after the arrival of the doctors, her case being hopeless. Pagett was not wounded, and appeared to be suffering from shock. When . he recovered he was charged with the murder, and replied that he wished he had shot himself. In his possession there were 43 revolver cartridges, and a weapon similar to the one found on the floor, and a bag of fifty cartridges which were purchased by Pagett at an ironmonger's shop in the city on Monday. The mother of the deceased, in her evidence, said there was no engagement in marriage between her daughter and Pagett. The latter had asked the girl's father for her, but he had refused owing to her tender years. The following undated letter, written by Pearl Axup to Pagett, was found in the Matter's pocket:— "My dear —I cannot possibly meet you to-night, as I have made, arrangements to go round to Oriental Bay this afternoon and spend the evening, but if you can come round to-morrow night I will be at home. J Anyhow, Kid, I cannot let you go away. Anything rather than that. I coilld' never forgive myself if you did go away. Besides, what would , ypur mater think of me? No,Jmy clear.'boy, you

will stay with me, and we will not break our engagement off. One thing I will never be forg'iven for is the pain I caused you last night. However, I can only try to make you as happy as possible in the future. Asking you forgiveness, believe me to be yours onIy.—PEARL." "I hope when you come round to-morrow night you will be in as high spirits as you were on New Year's Eve. Much love from yours, etc. —E.P.A."