THE DOUBLE TRAGEDY AT TARNDALE.

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 324, 11 February 1868, Page 3

THE DOUBLE TRAGEDY AT TARNDALE.

(From the Nelson Evening Mail.) Weare enabled, by the courtesy of Mr Graham Greenwood, to lay before our readers authentic particulars of the terrible tragedy which has just been enacted at Tarndale : — It appears that having been informed by Mr E. Hope of the circumstances, Mr Greenwood lef t'Motueka Valley on Friday last, taking with him Constable M'Faiiane and reached the Tophouse at 11 o'clock tke same night. On the following morning he continued his journey to Tarndale,' collecting by the way all who, having horses, were able to accompany him, to act as jurors on the inquests. He readied the Accommodation House, about two miles from the scene of the murder at Tarndale, about 7 p.m., where he found several other persons awaiting his arrival, who afterwards took part in the enquiry as witnesses. The next morning (Sunday) after an early breakfast, the party started for Tarndale, Mr Greenwood having determined on holding the inquest that day, though it was Sunday, as the bodies had | already been dead four days, and the threatening aspect of the weather made it a matter of uncertainty whether any delay would not have rendered all- travelling impossible. Half an hour took the party to the spot where the body of the murdered man lay in one of the rooms of the station, carefully sewn up in a blanket. The jury then viewed the corpse, which was that of a man of about 30 years of age, strongly built, and about five feet five or six inches high. Two wounds presented themselves, where the bullet had entered the back below the right shoulder blade, and passed out below the ribs in front / about two and a half inches from the central line of the body. The face was not distorted, and presented the usual appearance of death from gunshot wounds. From the evidence taken it appeared that the deceased, who was a German, and knoAvn by the name of German Charlie, as well as by other aliases, which he always allowed to be feigned names, was working as brickmakor's assistant at Tarndale on Wednesday, the 29th ult. Iv the afternoon, according to the evidence of Charles Sparrow, the brickniaker who whs working with him, Augarde (who was not personally known to witness), rode up, carrying a rifle on his left shoulder, and after making one or two ordinary remarks, ejaniired '* where all the chaps were ?" to which Sparrow replied that they were all away from the station exaept German' Charlie. He then rode on to the place where the deceased was at work, about 20 or 30 yards off, and Sparrow heard him say, "Charlie, I've a letter for you," the words being followed by the report of a rifle, and looking up ; he saw Augarde galloping past him as hard as he could go. Sparrow's first care was to see in which direction Augarde went, fearing that, as the only witness of the crime, he would be the next victim. But seeing him galloping away at a distance, he then went to the clay-pit where German Charlie was working, and found him, curiously enough, still standing upright, and wounded as we have already described. He immediately told Sparrow that he was shot, mentioned Augarde as the man who had shot him, and asked to be taken to the house, towards which Sparrow carried him, until, overcome by pain and weakness, he requested to be set down, saying that he was dying. With this Sparrow complied, and then went for assistance. When he returned with Messrs Hope, Schrimpton, and Goble, he found him quite dead, not having moved to all appearance since he had last seen him. They had scarcely removed the body to the house when they saw a young man named Kemp riding from the direction of the Clarence, and on his coming up to the station he informed them, that he had just discovered the body of a man lying across the road, about five miles off, at the junction of the rivers Alma and Severn, having his brains blown out, with his right foot lying over the stock of the rifle, and his horse grazing at some distance off, the bridle having been removed from the mare's head, and carefully fastened up to

the saddle. They at once concluded thn to be Augarde's body, which was afterwards proved to bo correct, and Mr Hope soon after started with the news, to find the nearest magistrate, in order to hold the requisite inquiry. The various witnesses having given their evidence, the jury, of which Mr Adolph Wiesenhavern was foreman, returned the following verdict : "That the deceased Charlie, the German, died from the effects of a gunshot wound, the bullet entering the back of his body below the right shoulder, and coming out below the heart, in front of the body, inflicted wilfully and deliberately by Ivanhoe Augarde." Immediately after the inquest on German Charlie, a fresh jury having been sworn in, Mr Greenwood repaired to the spot where the body of Augarde lay, which presented a most horrible appearance, the whole of the roof of the skull having been blown off and the brains scattered in every direction. After covering up the body in a blanket, the jury returned to the accommodation house, Wairau Gorge, and after a repast, which was much needed after 10 hours' fast, resumed the enquiry, which occupied until 11 o'clock that night, and was concluded on the following morning, when they arrived at the following verdict, which, it will be seen, is tantamount to? one ( >f felo de se — " That the deceased Ivanhoe Stanley Augarde met his death by committing premeditated suicide, by blowing out his brains with a rifle. " It appears that Charlie had been employed at Mr Carter's station on the Clarence for about .17 months, where he had frequent quarrels with Augarde, and six weeks ago had opened and shown a letter from Augarde to a young woman in the Wairau, to whom it is supposed he was paying his addresses. Some time after they met and fought, without any decisive result, the fight being stopped. These circumstances evidently rankled in Augarde's mind, who sought satisfaction | in the death of his antagonist, and conscious of the retributive justice which must inevitably follow on his crime, had j evidently determined on his own subsej queat destruction, for a letter was pro- ! dnced by Percy Augarde, written by his brother the night before the murder, which plainly showed this to be the case. The body of Charlie was to be buried at Tarndale on Monday last ; that of Augarde was left in charge of Mr Augarde, sen. , who reached the scene on Sunday, . and undertook its burial. The inquest was not concluded at all too early, for on leaving Tarndale it was almost a matter of a few minutes whether i the travellers or the fresh reached the ] crossing at the Rainbow first, for the river | was rising rapidly. The river, however, having been crossed iv safety, the rest of the journey, in spite of the tempestuous ' weather uhich prevailed, was comparaj tively easy, and after being detained a i day by the rain at the Tophouse, Mr i Greenwood was enabled to resume his t journey to town. I Mr Greenwood requests us to express his obligations to all those who assisted him in his painful enquiry, and especially to Messrs A. Wiesenhavern and Gillett, and we would also add that we learn from | Mr A. Wiesenhavern that the jury desired I to append to the verdicts an expression of their strong senge of Mr Greenwood's exertions on the occasion.