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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 765, 28 February 1870, Page 3

THE CASE OF WALTER THICKER. [Evening Post, February 17. The reply of his Excellency the Governor to the petition of the Rev. A. Stock, that Tricker's case must be considered as settled unless fresh ' evidence should, be gained, renders : it needful to lay the matter afresh ' before the public. The facts of the ' case are shortly these :—l. At the : trial in July, 1864, ouly one of the boys living at Mr Ravner'* at the ' time of the murder was produced. The other could have been in Court had a trap been sent to Otaki, as he was brought in thus a few days afterwards. The evidence of both these boys was very minute, describing the food eaten, &c. ; and yet one, Hoani, declared that Mr Rayner, Hamilton, and himself breakfasted together, while the other, Hamilton, declared that Hoani left before breakfast. Had this direct contradiction on so important a pdint been shown at the trial, the jury would, very probably, have believed neither of them. The contradiction appearing aftet wards was left unnoticed. 2. At the trial it was assumed that Tricker left the main road, rode up to Mr Rayner's, committed the murder, and then returned to his starting point. But there was no proper map of the district produced in court; the maps used showed only the main road. Had a proper map been used, it would have been seen that a swamp 4 miles long, and impassable in winter, stretched across this supposed line, and that Tricker, in the time given, could not have got to Mr Rayner's. A proper map was produced by Tricker's friends after the trial, and thus fully substantiated the prisoner's alibi. 3. At the trial, the times of Friday, the supposed morning of the murder, were settled from the clocks of a country district. It was said by the Judge, when summing up, that Tricker had 70 minutes that morning unaccounted for. He allowed him 24 minutes for the murder, the chasing Hamilton, the bursal of the body, the ransacking of the house, and 46 minutes to ride the supposed loop-line a distance (taking a bee-line from the point at which the road must have been left to Mr Rayner's) of 14J miles ridden at the rale of 18 miles an hour! Brookie said that Tricked passed him at a quarter to seven, on his way to Scotb's; Scott said that Tricker got to his house at 10 minutes to 7. Brookie's time was assumed at the trial to be , altogether wrong; Scott's time to be altogether right. Yet no reason was given by the Judge for rejecting Brookie's time, and for accepting

Seott's. It was, however, discovered after the f-rial that Brookie's time was right as be fixed the time, because when Tricker passed him., the sun was just clearing the bush. As the sun rose at twenty-six minutes to 7 this time was correctly given. It was also discovered that a lad, Arthur Amon, spoke to Tricker, about a mile from Scott's, when, as he says, the sun was about an hour up. Amon had risen at daybreak, had milked some cows, had walked a mile to his work, and worked some little while before he saw Tricker. The time here must have been about half-past 7. Tricker stopped to direct him about his work, and could not have got to Scott's, therefore, before half-past 7. Scott's time was wrong by at least 40 minutes. Thus the prisoner's alibi is established : first by the discovery of the swamp, and again by the fixing the proper times from the sun ; and the verdict proved to have been eivoneous. 5, The Judge, when summing up, said of Hamilton, the only witness against Tricker, " that he had never seen a witness whose manner was more truthful, or whose matter was more consistent with his manner." It may possibly have been that direct assertion of this witnesses truthfulness, and therefore of the prisoner's guilt, had some influence over the jury. 6. When the prisoner was condemned, and was asked why sentence of death should not be recorded he commenced to give a sufficient answer, but was stopped by the Judge. He could only say seven words, " I must have gone round by Rangitoto—" But these seven words did contain, as is now shown by the discovery of the swamp, sufficient reason for his acquittal. 7. This new matter concerning the swamp, and the error in Scott's time, was laid before the then Governor; the death sentence was commuted into one of penal servitude for life. It was also laid before the General Assembly by a petition of the Rev. A. Stock; and the commission appointed in 1867 declared that the prisoner's alibi was good. 8. Before the commutal of the sentence, a Maori in Wellington jail declared that he saw Tricker shoot Mr Rayner on the Friday morning. His .statement was at once proved to be false ; but his perjuiy was not punished, and he was soon released from jail. 9. About the end of 1866, certain prisoners in Wellington Jail declared that Tricker, on the morning after his sentence, confessed to the commission of the murder on the Thursday night. These prisoners, however, just before this had been punished in consequence of evidence given against them by Tricker. Others in the jail at the same time declared that Tricker never did so confess; that, if he had, they must have heard him equally with the deposers, and that it was a made-up story. 10. Mr Read, the Jail Warden, has deposed that Tricker said to him, when asked concerning some blood stain, "No,_ it did not come in that way, he bled from the mouth." Tricker on his part, declares that he never used these words; that Mr Read, on a Sunday evening, after reading the Bible, began to talk about the murder, and asked him about the blood, and that, whatever he did say, he was never cautioned that any words of his would be used against him. , But whether he used the words or not, it is certain that when the body was exhumed there was no blood- , stain upon the face. The body, , when buried, was carefully protected by boarding. No rain fell for two days, and any blood flowing from the mouth would have been visible enough from the sharp contrast with the death paleness of the face. But all who first saw the body declare that there was no blood-stain upon the face. 11. All this fresh matter against Tricker has been taken se- • cretly and informally. It could not be rendered as good and true evi- . dence in a court of law. 12. The question now js, therefore, whether '. an Englishman in an English Colony, . and under English law, can be kept , in prison, the verdict under which , he is confined having been shown to be a mistaken one, because of secret • evidence, whether that evidence be ! truly or falsely given,