MURDER CASE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10632, 10 May 1912, Page 5

MURDER CASE

CABLE NEWS

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph — Copyright.)

MAN ARRESTED AT PiRTH

POLICE COURT PROCEEDINGS. (Received May 9, 1 p.m. LONDON, May 8. At the* hearing at the Police Court o'f the charge .agaimst William Weird 1 , 'who was arrested m West Australia *-n Ffebruary last on a cfcairge. of murdering Ernest Nixey Smiit'lh at Ohiswick in 1908, it .was stinted tlihit Ward (Informed the constable) who Wad '."barge of him on the voyage Home tliat the deceased had tried to arrest ■him', a:nd was struck by an umbrella in ,thei struggle. Learning that deceased hadl been; stabbed, he wc-n't to Canada,, and thence, to Australia, Mhfire he. hid in. the- bush.

MairslraSn.!, a tailor, testified. tteb he hsPl heard Ward tJ:»rc'a!te-:i' to gougo Smith's eye out. Another witness .said he saw Ward <folfowling Sar-Llfii,, and strike thfe laltter .with an •umibrdla.'. There was no gleWard was remanded.

• (Ci.i Wednesday, 23th October, 1908, Mir Err.-st Nixey Smith,, the &ecretary (and manager cf.d dairy at Qiiswick, 45 years, of aige, was seen talking to a irran: at the corr.'3r ct Tur'nham Green, Tti'rao?. A few minutes later be was '3".-3 covered IVrr.ig on- the ground tinconisc:V,us, 'and suffierinp from serious injuries it 6: Ms head. He utts removed 'to a hospital, fart died without retonering consioierisaicgis. At the inquest witnesses came forward to testify that they had seen the deceased Kami engaged in a viClient altercation with si certain Wiiifta'nv'WWd. at" the '3m,©'mentioned. The latter oarrie'd an "ucmibrelja with a sharp ferrule, and, to tb; nnedk-a.l evidence', the (injury to Mr Sni'itli,,\vliicli was a deep punctured wouw don the left temple, imigh:, have been caused by just such ;nn. iirttlemcnt. Meanwhile the man. laMuded to had disappeared., and_ aill effort*, to discover h;is whereialb'outiS proved una-vaiiJlng. :T,he coroner's jury retor.ned a verdict of wilful murder against him, and on Ist December i'he police .issued an official notice offering a rev'.ard cif £-50 for his appr'efliensicn. In February last a man named iWllipim Wad wias arrested at Perth and charged with the murder, was rcrranded ©ending the arrivnJ /•if an escort to take him to England. .It was alfeged that Ward at first admitted being aft Chis-wick at the time iof the tragedy, but afterwards dleclar:ed that he had-..never been, there, and iShat in 19C8 he-.w-as living in Canada.)