Murder accused David Bain agreed the Every St house where five of his family were shot on June 20, 1994, should be burned down.
The house was razed about two weeks after the killings and two of Bain's uncles yesterday told the retrial jury in Christchurch that Bain had expressed no interest in the house, although he did not want anything to happen to the section as he had put a lot of work into it.
John Boyd, husband of one of Margaret Bain's sisters, Valerie, and Michael Bain, brother of the accused's father Robin Bain, were joint executors of Robin and Margaret Bain's wills.
They visited David Bain in prison on June 28, 1994, with another uncle, Peter Bain, and Bob Clark, the husband of another of Margaret's sisters, Jan.
Mr Boyd said the police had warned them that the security guards would have to be withdrawn from the property and it would have cost $1000 a week for the family to keep them on.
They felt the house was a fire risk and that people would be poking around.
And a valuation of the Every St property indicated the section was worth more without the house.
He also thought the building had been condemned, but was unsure, Mr Boyd said.
As co-executor and having worked in the banking industry for more than 40 years, he had checked Robin and Margaret Bain's bank account statements.
The family's only income was Robin's fortnightly salary of $1096.06. The Bains were frugal and did not have much to come an go on. They regularly cleared their Visa bill the day before it would have incurred interest.
And the opening balance of $385.80 on the Visa account for June 1994 had been paid just before 11.30pm on June 19 when that sum was transferred from the joint account.
Mr Boyd also told the court of a spasmodic conversation between him and the accused over about three hours at the Clark family home early on June 22.
At one stage Bain had said "If it was my father, I can never forgive him", and the witness said he replied that if it was Robin, Bain would have to forgive him because he obviously "Wasn't in his right mind".
Asked by defence counsel Michael Reed QC whether the police had mentioned that important evidence would be lost if the house was burned, Mr Boyd said he could not imagine there had been anything left in the house.
Everything had been removedMichael Bain described Robin, his older brother by six years, as a good brother, a wise, gentle and considerate person and a good and knowledgeable tramping companion.
He had never seen him lose his temper.
And Mr Bain said Robin was still very enthusiastic about teaching and very excited about the prospects of developing a native bush area he was planning for the school.
He had been to Hamilton in January 1994 to a course on technology and had a growing interest in it. He had led his pupils in an Internet scheme so they could share their experiences with children in other parts of the world.
The project achieved national publicity and a friend of Robin's who wrote about it attributed the success of the Taieri Beach school to Robin Bain.
