A WASTED LIKE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1403, 10 November 1886, Page 3

A WASTED LIKE.

A. man with a strange history has died at Belfast, iu Victoria, where his daad tody was found on the coast. The decease', who was kncwn as "‘Billy Crayfish,” had Jived for the last 25 years hermit-dike in a cave on the coast, and had obtained a liv ng by catching fi hf nd making hrocms and mats At the inquest the evidence showed that ho was Witliam Archer, and that he had s strange history According to a witness who knew the deceased intimately, it appears that 45 years ago he was sentenced to transportation for Hfe from the old country to Tasmania for the alleged crime of shootin? a gamekeeper while poaching. He had been in this district for about 30 years. About 13 years ago a man in England on hts d athbed confessed that he, and not Wi'liam Arcljer, had shot the gamekeeper and that Archer had been wrongly ccn vioted. Archer’s friends who w«s in a good position, comtmmicaied with the authorities in England with the resalt that Archer received a free pardon, and arrangements were made to pay his expenses to England. The old man how- | ever, refused to go back, saving (hat his life had been mined by an unjust senior c A verdict was returned of death from old age and exposure