THE KYEBURN MURDER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5306, 30 July 1928, Page 3

THE KYEBURN MURDER.

A BRUTAL CRIME. SUE FEE’S STATEMENT, The events leading up to the shooting of Jo Shum at Kyeburn; last Tuesday are thus described by Sue Pee, the murdered man’s chum. At about one o’clock on Tuesday afternoon the man, who had previously visited Shum’s camp three .weeks, ago, arrived. Shum and Pee invited him inside and baked pancakes and heated some milk for the visitor. After, the meal the map caused astonishment in the hut by .announcing that he- was a policeman inquiring about the killing of another man and the theft of £2OO from him. Shun was accused of the crimes. Tife man then asked: “Have yen a gun ?” Shum showed him a repeating rifle, which he had kept in the hut. “Have you any cartridges ?” Shum was asked, and several cartridges were, produced*. Interrogation by the alleged policeman; was shifted from murder, theft, and guns (so Pee declares) to the state ‘of Shum’s mining claim, about which many qeustions were asked. After a long conversation the visitor picked up the rifle, suggesting that Shum and he should go to shoot a rabbit and have a look ,at the cla’m. Shum and the man left the hut, and shortly afterwards Sue Pee went towards a. patch of manuka scrub half a..mile away to cut firewood. Pee heard; rifle shots, but carried on, with his wonk.

Shortly .after three Shum struggled up the hill towards him- “He say lie kill m'a uhlcss I give him £100,” Shum stated to his Oriental mate. “I give him two ounces of gold and then he shoot.” s

Shum was then, bleeding profusely from- h’s wounds, and his path from the hut to- where Pefe s was working was marked with a train of blood. With Pee’s assistance Shum returned to the hut. Pee -lifted him, fully clothed, on to the bed and removed his boots. Then the fear; of death overcame Pee, and he left the camp in, great trepidation that the,- man would return to kill him also. Hid'ng in the tussocks all night, P&e was too afraid to move lest a bullet should be aimed! at him. At daybreak Pee left his hidingplace ’and hurried to Danley’s Pass Hotel, where he, startled the proprietor (Mr Henry Forward) with the announcement, “Shum’s been killed.” The Chinese was overwrought and very excited; and could not give unintelligible account of the fatality at the mining claim. ARREST AND IDENTIFICATION. The police, as the result of diligent inquiries, effected the ari'est of a young man named John William Hardie, and charged him with the murder. Sue Pee' wa.s taken in from Kyeburn, and the Otago Daily Times thus described the method of. identification : At about 10 a.m. an interesting procession filed info the gaol yard. Seventeen men were lined' up in a row, and then the agitated Sue Pee.arrived, escorted by Sub-Inspecton Fahey and other police officials, and accompanied by -q countryman or two and a young woman of his own rate who acted as interpreter. Confronted by the row. of men, Pee had no difficulty in recognising the man wh’o had appeared at the claim two days ago, and who had broken bread with him and his friend 1 . Terror showed in the old man’s eyes, and not even the security of policy protection was, sufficient to overcome his; f®ar of one of the me'n with whom he found himself face; to face. Asked to point out his man, Pee nodded his head towards Hardite, who stood with the .16 other men who had been selected at random fom the shops and officers in on near the court buildings. All the men vtere of. much the same height, but there was no. hpstiation or uncertainty inf the old man’s voice as he cried, “Him the one,” When, told to point the man out Pee refused in panicky haste, and cried : “No ! no ! Him shoot me ! Him shoot me!” He amplified his directions to the; extent of. saying: “Him the one with his legs open.,” but no amount of coaxing or vehement instruction could induce the terrified man to point in direction; let alone go near enough to touch him. Eventually a somewhat impatient inspector told the interpreter to get Pee to count from one end and state the number of his man in the line. The result was that! Hardie-, number, seven, was again indicated. The gathering, then dispersed, the identified man being taken Jnto custody, where he was charged by the sub-inspector and immediately brought before the; magistrate.