TELEGRAPHIC.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1425, 9 July 1883, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC.

UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. . _ Dunedin, Saturday. In Minter's case the jury were unable to agree, and the Judge in discharging them said lie regretted that for a second time this session jury were unable to come to a conclusion. Mr Haggitt said he thought this was a case in which the trial might well beheld in some other place. The Judge said the prisoner could not be tried elsewhere on this indictment. A fresh trial was ordered for Monday week,

MUDRER AND SUICIDE BY DYNAMITE.

Dunedm, July 6, Shortly after G o'clock this evening the residents at Manor-place were startled with the intelligence that a murder and suicide had been committed in the locality. It seems that at about that hour Mr Donald Oargill and his brother, whilst conversing at the corner of Lee-street, had their attention attracted by a flickering light some fifty yards up Manor-place, and they took it to proceed from some children Splaying with crackers,'" until they suddenly heard a loud report as of the iring of some explosive.materiaLSHurrying up the street to the spot where. ,the sound came from, they we're horrified by find-

ing a man's body hanging over a fence alongside the street line, and the body of a female lyiug prostrate at the mans feet, Both bodies were headless; the. pavement being strewed with brains and blood. The sight was : sickening beyond description, The bodies, which presented a most ghastly appearance, were removed to the morgue by Constable Parker, On inquiry it was learnt that the victim of this terrible tragedy, the first of its kind in the colony, was Mrs Stephenson, and that the murderer was her husband, George Timothy Stephenson, Mrs Stephenson is well known in Dunedin, where she for some time past has occupied the position of head milliner at Saunders, Mcßeath and Co's, She was a daughter of Mr Stenhouse, of Maitlandstreefc, and has been separated some time from her husband, who has quite recently been engaged as groom for Campbell, Oust & Co, The parties, as is well-known, have been on bad terms for some time, and Stephenson, through being denied access to his children, of whom he had two, has been known to entertain feelings of revenge towards the unfortunate woman and herparents, In May last he was charged, at the instance of Mr Stenhouse, at the City Police Court, with threatening conduct, and was then bound over. It is said that ho has persistently dogged the footsteps of his wife for weeks, and it is surmised that this evening he followed her homo from her place of business, and overtook her in Manorplace. Of course, what happened at their meeting can never be known, as no one was near at the time. It is believed that dynamite was the oxplosive substance used. The affair has created the greatest excitement in tho neighborhood,

Latest particulars. Further particulars concerning the murder and suicide show that Stephenson had been threatening his wife with violence for some time, saying that one or both of them would die. That night he had followed her home, and overtaking her on the footpath ho grasped her by the breast, He then fired off a dynamite cartridge, holding it in his right hand and pointing it at her head. She screamed out when he caught hold of her, but nobody was close enough to render assistance. The effect of the explosion was to blow their heads almost entirely away. He had evidently premeditated murder and presumed his own death also, as he must have been acquainted with the properties of dynamite, In his pocket afterwards was found a cartridge similar to the one it is conjectured lie did the deed with. It had the head of a fuse inserted at one end, and tied by a piece of thread to the fuse was a match, the head outwards. He evidently struck the match, and then waved the cartridgo in the air after the fuse caught to make it burn brisker. This was the blue light seen by the Cargiels. On him also was found a letter drawn out to minister of Justice asking that the separation order obtained by his wife should be set aside. He had been drinking from time to time for the last two or three years, and recently has been several times before the Police Court for drunkenness During yesterday he had attempted to get his children away from his wife's control, having taken one of them away from school, but the little one ran away from him. It now transpires that Stephenson was not a banker at Mosgiel, as was at first supposed, but many years ago he was a clerk in the Bank of New South W.iles in Cromwell. He afterwards became proprietor of a quartz mine in that district, out of which he made a considerable sum of money, Afterwards, about 1878, he went to Taranaki, where he resided some time. His wife had before then left him.

Wellington, this day. A Giaborno man named Sydney J. Bromley who has resided here (or several years on business as boot nuel shoo retailer waß on Saturday brought before the Resident Magistrate on a charge of wife deseriion, Ho had passed as a married man living with his wife hero, but a shon time ago he was met in (he stroet by a young man, who accosted him as father, and said ho had come from Auoklund in search of him, his first wifo being a resident there. She was in constant receipt of affectionate letters from the accused, representing that he was living far up in the bush in poor circumstances. Mrs Bromley No, 1 arrived and interviewed Mrs Bromley No. 2, and Bromley bolted to Auckland where he was arrested. He was bailed on the charge of wifo dosoriion, but will probably be proceeded against for bigamy,