THE PRISONER SULLIVAN.

Grey River Argus, Issue 83, 24 July 1866, Page 3

THE PRISONER SULLIVAN.

(From the ".Colonist," July 13.) ..- : _ V Sullivan, who has turned approver, has not long been connected with Burgess,' itolly, and- Levy." He- is not the person who was arrested some years ago in Otago, and who had been' a' notorious character well known to the Otago police. We have obtained some special and reliable inf or-, ination from a person who returned from the West Coast last Monday, v who met Sullivan there, and who knew him in Mount Korong in Victoria. It seems that Sullivtm arrived in this Qolony only about three months ago, and this accords ■tfith a statement which he made some weeks ago to Mr Moorhouse, the Superintendent of Canterbury, whom. he told he had only been about two months in New iSealana. . •He stated to our informant that he had been in Auckland many years ago, when he was quite a lad, andhad not sinco been in the Colony until now. " lj "Sullivan lived for twelve or fourteen [years at Mount Korong, one of the earliest ;6f the Victorian gold fields, 140 mile 3 : |rom Melbourne. Here he followed the Occupation of a digger. He was known /to have been a convict, but he bore' a pretty good character.for an " Old hand." He was somewhat addicted to gambling, Jind occasionnlly got into a drunken row. The only time that our informant remembars him having been brought up on any charge -at "Motint Korong was some years p,go, when he was fined £10 for striking a policeman. • He has two sons, aged about eighteen and fifteen respectively ; and his jvife was always .considered a dsccnt, respectably .conducted woman, keeping a respectable looking, house and orderly childri n. She was thought ioo good' a wife-for such a man. No one in Korong fhought much of Sulli\ r an, but no one Relieved that lie could have been concerned in atrocities such as those he'now stands 'charged with being accessory to. He owned several building allotments in ,Wedderburn, the township of Mount Korong, ami also apiece of land in the •district. This laud he' sold before ho left ior New Zealand. For the past two or three years he had kept the half-way house 'betweeu Inglcwbod and Korong, but he sold out of this about" fpur months ago, and moved his Hvif e and family into Wcddcrburn, where he rented a house for thoni, while he came over to. Hokitika. "He arrived at Hokitika in the Albion only Jabout tliree months ago ; aud the ilrst place in the Hokitika. diggings he '.vent to |was the Hau-Hau Creek, about eight or -ten miles up the country from Hokitika, where he remained a few days ; but, not -Mking the country, he returned to Hoki|iki, with 'the intention of, going back to jilelboufne. He secured a i)assage by the ~star of the Evening, ahd_went on board, taking liis swag with him, on the day the Jteamer was advertised "to sail ; but the %eather" continuing bad, the. steamer wa3 unable to cross the' bar, and was detained |or several days. Ho' then was heard to say that if l',e:couldget a chance of selling his ticket he should not go after all. He .did dispose of his ticket and remained. There is some reason for believing that he was hard up "at the time of his coming to New Zealand, and had very little money after paying his passage; for so our informant was told by an old Mount Korong man, who came over in the same ysssel ■^vith Sullivan." After selling liis ticket he must have" very, soon met with the evil associates Burgess and his companions, who were some time on the West Coast, and were looked upon as known bad characters. . :.*■.•....- About six weeks ago, this same Mount Korong jnan, who came over- with Sullivan, met him" again at Hokitika, and was then told by him' that he had been down south, having just-returned from Okarita. This date (six weeks' since), coincides with the .time of the Bank robbery at Okarita, .in which the Canterbury detective is im"plicated, and which occurred about the end of May. ' . . .: The other Sullivan, the man wanted in Otago, is still at large. An Otago detective has so . far corroborated this, having said from the first, after the apprehension of this man, that he was not the Otago Sullivan. ■ ■.'"_■ We ought" to add that the name John Joseph Sullivan* is not that which prisoner used at Korong, where he always went by the name of Thomas Sullivan, .