SOME PECULIAR PEOPLE.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1061, 8 April 1873, Page 4

SOME PECULIAR PEOPLE.

The New Zealand Herald gives the of an extraordinary affair happening at Howick 15 miles from Auckland. An old woman was found hanging by the neck in the wash-house. The postmaster, constable, and doctor, with other residents all saw the body hanging, but none would cut it down. The house was then closed up by the constable, and the body of the woman was permitted to remain still hanging, •until beyond mid-day following, a period of thirty-two hours. after |the discovery was made, and the body had been seen by nearly a hundred men, women and chrildren. An inquest was convened, and the postmaster, instead of being called as a principal witness, was elected foreman of the jury, -who returned a verdict of felo de se. After the enquiry had concluded and the verdict been given, still, stronge to say, the foreman stated to the bystanders that his opinion was that the deceased woman had been of unsound mind for some time past. A •coffin having been made, the corpse placed in it, and the lid screwed down the clergyman of the English Church at Howick, upon being informed of the woman's death and the necessity •of her burial, refused t© perform the burial irites over her, or allow her to •be placed withiu-ihe area of the burial :ground where -other interments had .been made -, but consented to allow a iholeto be dug in the comer of the •cemetery away from all others. The •coffin was conveyed to the cemetery iby the police, but every one present— there were some forty persons—■refused te help to place the coffin on the trap. The Rev. Mr Hall next (refused to allow the coffin to be placed in the hole dug for it until seven ■o'clock in the evening, upon the ground that it was so stated in the -Church Service; but this mandate was ■resisted by the police, and the coffin was at last deposited in the grave and the earth filled in by 4 o'clock. In reference to the case the Auckland Star says x— " "We will back Howick against the colony. That in this year of grace, and within a dozen ■of miles of this centre of civilization, a commuuity of such innocents should ■be discovered passes all comprehension. Parson and constable, magistrate and jury, and people, all seem to have been tarred with the same brush- In •eastern villages the people will uot interfere with a tiger making a repast •on a fellow-villager because the wild beast is sacred. The people of Howick, .perhaps, from hereditary instinct, appear to have a similar holy reverence for a rope."