A PERTH TRAGEDY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9571, 18 August 1909, Page 5

A PERTH TRAGEDY.

POISONING OF CHILDREN. CHARGE OF WILFUL MURDER. United I'ress Association—By Eloctrio Telegraph Copyright. Received August 17, 11 a.m. PERTH, August 17. At the inquest on the Morris children the jury found that Arthur Morris died,from an irritant poison administered by the woman Rendell, .and that Thomas Morris, father of the children, was an accessory to the act. Both Rendell and Morris were arrested on a charge of wilful murder. The evidence disclosed that repeated sales of spirits of salts had been made to Morris and members of his family. Arthur Morris, a boy of 15, died in 1907, and two others of Morris' children died last year. In May last another boy ran away, telling the neighbours he was not going to stay to be poisoned. He asserted that the woman Rendell had given his brother sprits of salts for a sore throat. As the medical men were not satisfied as to the cause of death, the bodies of the three children were ordered tu be exhumed, and an analysis of the contents of the stomachs disclosed signs of irritant poison.