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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 8, Issue 402, 13 August 1866, Page 4

At the date of our last summary we had news from Nelson that four of the settlers were missing, and that up to the date of our latest files no traces of their bodies were found, though from the discovery of the body of their packhorse and certain property known to have belonged to them, no doubt could be entertained that they had been brutally murdered. Subsequent files of Nelson paper have put us in possession of the facts as they have been brought to light, from which we compile the following. From the information of a person named Jervis, who had good reasons for supposing that certain persons were the murderers, the police were put upon the scent, and shortly after four men were taken up on suspicion. One of these, named Sullivan, confessed, and gave information as to where the bodies of their victims were hidden. These being found, were confirmatory of the evidence thus given. The confession of Sullivan laid bare a tale of wanton cruelty almost unparalleled in the annals of crime. The four victims whose murder led to the apprehension of the prisoners were not by any means all who had fallen by their hands—how many it is impossible to say, hut it is quite evident that they were stopped iu the midst of a career of wholesale murder. Amongst others who have been their victims was a surveyor named Dobson, who, it would seem, was murdered because an intended victim had escaped their clutches, and not from any expectation of finding a booty on him. Another was an old whaler named Jamie Battle, who they thought had money, but all whose riches amounted to but three pounds, and it is said that many more—twenty or thirty victims—lie buried in the sand on the West Coast. The murderers were prepared to carry their hellish deeds to any extent, being provided with a bottle of strychnine for the wholesale slaughter of any party that might have been too numerous to be disposed of in their ordinary way. Their immediate object in coming to Nelson was to murder the occupants of the Bank of New South Wales, fob the Bank, aud effect their escape to Australia, for all of which a deep-laid scheme was concocted by one of the gang. They are now in custody at Nelson awaiting their trial for the above, and we believe that the sitting of the Court is fixed for some time in September.