CO129-181 - Governor Hennessy - 1878 [1-8] — Page 374

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described herself in Court as a widow. She

had got married with much

ceremony

in the interval between her leaving sheK O

and the trial.

On the whole I cannot accept

10.

the

theory that it

was an

and that it was a

with

attempt to rob,

marder committed

very great premeditation and

without the least provocation

on

the

part of the murdered woman.

of the only two persons who witnessed the occurrence, that is the accused and the

witness Chumamui I

an

disposed to give greater credence to the statement of

story

the accused. He told the same

from the

very beginning. She varied her story at each examination, and, as we

now know, undoubtedly committed perjury on more than one material point.

Instead of being an attempt to rob,

11.

for which there is not a particle of reliable evidence it seems more like a

quarrel arising out of jealousy, a fierce quarrel in which the prisoner

was struck first. The witness, Chun amui, admits that the prisoner received a push before he drew the chopper from under his jacket. But what the witness calls a

push the prisoner says was a

was a violent

blow on the head which stunned him

and rendered him so confused that the first blow he made in return struck the

child.

12.

Whilst attaching great weight

!