The Murder at Green Island.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 226, 10 March 1874, Page 7

The Murder at Green Island.

(tyatiy Timqi (Marqh 2)..«.., Intelligence arrived iuiQunedin on Saturda'y'night to the effeot that a.publican Patrick, Long,, the keeper 1 of the Kaikorai Homely. a young labouring man natned Nicholas M'Donald, and the news, of course caused a ! great deal of excitement. The particulars of the Occurrence 1 Were buougjit in by three or four at about ten o'clock at night, to' Constable Anderson* at Caversham, and he at once started for Green Island, and arrested Long, ■who made no-resistance, and.was at once brought into Dnnedin in an omnibus, and lodged uY the lock-up in Maclaggan-street.. From what we were.able to gather from the many statements that were given, it appears that the deceased , man, whose name is Nicholas M'Donald, left his home between eight and nine o'clock on Saturday night, and i after calling at Eagerty's Hotel, where he was paid bv his employer, he went to the -Kaikorai Hotel—kept by Patrick Long—with a man named M'Sweeny. The two men had some drinks, and he wished M'Sweeny to go home with his wife, who was waiting for; him in the road. An altercation between the two men then ensued, and as they were talking loudly, the landlord, Long, pushed them away from the door, and stood at the entrance to prevent the two men'coming again into the place. The. deceased asked .Long why he had pnshedThim. Some more high- words were exchanged, and then a. dispute arose between M'Donald and a man named Harry O.'Cane. O'Caneknopked the deceased down, and according to the statements of several men who were attracted to the place by the noise, kicked him. M'Donald got up and O'Cane knocked him down the second time. The disturbance continued,' and Long shut the front door' of his house and went inside. The deceased then began to knock a!; the door, and according to. the statements of some of those who were there, threw stones at the house in his endeavours to get the landlord to let him in. Long then-appears to have come-out by the back door, -with a -revolver in his hand, and going round the side-of the house, apnroached the place where M'Donald was standing. The' man who was standing next to the deceased was Mr Norman M'Cabe, and near him was a man named Pearce, Long pushed M'Cabe to one side, and saying *' this is the way I serve such ' r as you, who destroy my property," fired at M'Donald, who fell at once. Long would appear to bave been about twenty yards from M'Donald when he fired. It was almost impossible to get two stories about the occurrence. One versi<m was to <he effect that when, the deceased, was kicking at the door,

Long went into 1 his bedroom, took a revolver from a drawer;-went to the back door and] . fired a shot—it is supposed for the purpose! • of ascertaining whether the weapon was in I order or not. Several persons affirm tnat they heard two shots, while others say that the revolver was only fired once—when M'Donald was killed.. -When the fatal shot had been fired, Long, went into liis hotel again by the back door, entered the bar whistling a popular air, and commenced to serve drinks to those inside as if nothing had happened. When he went into the hotel there appears to have been some little altercation between him and his wife, and he was heard to deny "that he had fired a shot.,.. Three or four men at once started on horseback to give information to the police, and the first member of the force who received: intelligence of the crime having been committed Avas Sergeant Anderson, at Caversham. .He at once started for Green Island, and having seen the body and satisfied himself as to the information that had been supplied to him, went to the Kaikorai Hotel, where he arrested the landlord Long, who treated the matter in the coolest manner possible, and denied any knowledge of the affair. When the de-1

•ceased was shot, and fell on the road, there were several persons about; and his boiy, which appeared to be lifeless, was lifted and removed to a stone house a few yards off, kept by a man named Montague, where he had been boarding. From this place it was afterwards taken to a wooden house owned *>y Mr Eagerty, hotelkeeper, where it now lies awaiting an'inquest. Enquiries were instituted by the police, and a search made for the weapon with which the deed had been committed. In the till in the bar of the Kaikorai Hotel a revolver, case was discovered by the police, but the revolver had not been found up to a late hour last night. Two or three wells in the vicinity had been drained, and the bush round about was searched, but without avail. The production of the weapon is not of course absolutely necessary as evidence, as there were witnesses to the deed. Long has been in the district for some considerable time, and was formerly a driver in the employ of Messrs Marshall and Copeland. He is described as a quiet man, of about 35 years of and one of the last men who would have been suspected as being capable of an act of violence or bloodshed. M'Donald, the deceased, was a young fellow aged 22, a single man, and a native of Ayrshire, Scotland. He has only been in the Colony a few months, and at the time of his death was in the employ of Mr Pearce—who has a subcontract for the erection of abridge at Abbotsford. Long is a married man, but has no family. The deceased was struck by the bullet on the upper part of the right temple, and of course his brain was pierced. From the statements of those who were present, it seems he never snnke after, he was shot. There was a pool of blool on the road where M'Donald fell, and this' was "covered with a,

brandy case, in order .that the jury might bo able to view it when the inquest was held.

J !• ', ', i r, '•' J i c ' ivery'fefj fresh particulars were brought Qu,t at the inquest.;' One witness, who declared he was standing-within a foot of Long wlveji he fired the shot, says he came, round from; the back of the house folding up his shirt sleeves. The revolver, has not been found. One witness, named Andrew Douglas, deposed as follows :•—," I know Mr Long. I have had one transaction with him. 1 sold him a breech-loading pistol and a quantity of cartridges about four months ago. There was a cover with the revolver. It is the same as that produced. I believe he used to keep it beneath the counter. The night I sold it to him I showed him how to load it. I could not swear, to. the bullet now produced." The statement made by the prisoner to Inspector Mallard was as follows :'— "Iwas not outside my house at all that night. I heard the row and heard shots, but I did not go outside. I shut myself in, as a a stono had broken my window." At the inquest, the counsel for the prisoner, (Messrs Barton and Smith,) were not allowed to cross-examine the witnesses ; but a trial is. to take place before the Resident Magistrate to-day, (March 10), when possibly a cross-ex-amination may bring out fresh circumstances in connection with the case.