THE GREAT BARRIER TRAGEDY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1405, 12 November 1886, Page 2

THE GREAT BARRIER TRAGEDY

A story (a current, saya an exchange, with regard to the Great Barrier murderers, that at the time when Penn and the girl were endeavoring to reach one of tho townships, they ii quired the road of a little who proved to bo the son i f Constable McClelland. He gave directions which caused th m to make a detour of four or five miles, and went home and informed his father that he had seen a min and woman whom ha believed were Penn and the girl Graham. The consta'de was at first disposed to regard the matter lightly, and to pooh pooh, but ultimately took steps to prove its accuracy with the result already known. Prom another paper we learn that Mrs Reid, the mother of the girl Cleary or Graham, was smongat those assembled to see the prisoners at the tuck land Court, She stated :—“ I want to see my daugh’er. r have not seen her for a long time. Last January I was living in Howe street with my present husband, Robert Reid, and my girl. I had a letter about the death of one of my relatives living at Frasertown, Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, I went down to see my friends, and while I wa« there my husband who is a seafaring man and aailmaker, took up with a low woman. He went down to the Barrier taking this woman wth him He is there now. The girl went down to the Barrier to get to her stepfather. She went down once before, but they con'd not land her at the right place. This last time when she went down she wanted to be put on shore when Ooffrey and Penn came on board after the murder, but they would not put her on chore. She Is only fifteen years of age, no ra re. Her name is Sarah i-1 zibeth O.eary. She never saw her fatoer ; he died before she was born. I do no Know how she comes to be called Graham.