Murdered farmer's widow would pity 'coward'

Agnes Nicholas says Stump and Mig are waiting for their master to return. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Agnes Nicholas says she would have nothing but pity for the "coward" who killed her husband, if she ever gets to look the offender in the eye.

The 65-year-old widow spoke to the Weekend Herald at her home in Puketitiri, northwest of Napier, during a week of developments in the 20-month hunt for Jack Nicholas' killer.

A 49-year-old labourer was arrested on Tuesday and charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the case.

The arrest followed the recovery of two firearm cartridges from a property in the beachside community of Haumoana, south of Napier.

Other properties were subsequently searched, vehicles confiscated, people interviewed and a riverbank combed for firearms or firearm cartridges, but no murder charge has been laid.

Mr Nicholas was shot while standing by a gate in his slippers at the isolated Puketitiri property on August 27, 2004.

The killer took three shots at the 71-year-old with a high-calibre firearm from 50m away, but for Mrs Nicholas, the rest remains a mystery. "I've got no idea who it would be or for what reason," she said.

She did not know the arrested man, who has interim name suppression, in the same way she said she did not know everyone who came to their farm and talked to her husband.

If the killer had harboured a grudge against her husband, that only made his actions more reprehensible.

"If he thought it was courageous to stand behind a gun and do his talking, he's wrong," she said. "It would have been far better to come speak to Jack and tell him what was bothering him."

In the months since the murder, Mrs Nicholas has taken on many of the chores that her husband used to do, including caring for his two sheepdogs, Mig and Stump.

"When I feed them and look in their eyes, I can see that they're saying, 'You'll do, Agnes, till Jack comes back'."

She works with her son, Oliver, and his wife, Angela, to run the 1000ha farm, but they struggle without Mr Nicholas.

"We miss him every day. Not only is he not here to help us with the workload, he's not here to help us with decisions."

Reminders of her husband are everywhere - antlers mounted on the woolshed wall from deer he shot, a horse-shaped weather vane he made for the barn roof, a paddock of trees he planted in a starburst formation so as not to block a view of mountains for his wife, and the house of river stones that he kept his promise to build her when enticing her to leave her native Scotland for him. Tears well in Mrs Nicholas' eyes when she talks about her husband, who wooed her with flowers and letters for two years before she moved permanently to New Zealand.

She has used the publicity surrounding the murder to campaign against proposed legislation that would allow the public free access to private land, following the lead of a man who was passionate about protecting his farm from poachers.

Mr Nicholas was also passionate about conservation, releasing the rabbit-killing calicivirus to the Hawkes Bay in 1997 and saying it was the best day's work he ever did as he watched it spread through the North Island.

His widow has the highest praise for police investigating his murder, calling them very diligent and thorough, but she does not ask them too many questions.

"I figure that when they're ready, they'll tell us."