AN ABORIGINAL CRIMINAL.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 31, 20 June 1877, Page 2

AN ABORIGINAL CRIMINAL.

Tbe Brisbane Courier yires the following account of an aboriginal criminal :— It will be remembered that Peter, theaboriginal charged with the murder of Mr Wilkinson, at Wangawallen Creek, Upper Commera, died in Brisbane Gaol on the 22ad of February. After the commission of his crime, he betook himself to a mountainous and almost inaccessible region at the head of Neranz, the head* quarters of his tribe. A gentleman who recently visited the locality gives us some particulars in connection with this notorious criminal. It seems that since his departure from Nerang no news bad been reeived by his kinsfolk of Peter's fate ; it was natural, therefore, that the bereaved darkies should come flocking around our informant, eagerly asking him for news concerning him, who says :— ••• When told of his death in prison, the intelligence was received with anything bttt dissatisfaction. There is no denying the fact that the assurance of Peter's rentable and eternal absence from the hunting-grounds of his sable brethren was to them a cause for rejoicing ; far he had been a terror alike to friend and foe, and the possibilty of his escaping the clutches of the white* fellow, and returning, haunted then* like a nightmare. Peter is credited with the murder of three gins — done to death, otic after another, as he wearied of them. 3W way in which he got rid of his father-in-law reads like a chapter from a yarn by Fenimore Cooper— the romaneist of that atmvoary hurnbtur, the Red Indian. Theold man wa« Mind, and was a burden, so Peter invited him one fine day to take * wali. The walk happened to conduct them to a precipice, but the perceptions or the blind arc preternaturally acute. The* blind man declined to walk over the edge, nnd was pushed over it by his affectionate relative. » c o great was the terror that thepowerftil Peter inspired, that when hit capture was resolved on, nearly the whole tribe assemb'ed to do the deed. Tbe courso of action adopted was to rush hins> in his sleep— -to attack ltim in broad day* light was too hazardous. On a givensi »n»l, a dozr>n black fellows, tomahiwk in b'uid, rushed in on the prostrate and unarmed man. The straggle for a few minutes was desperate, but it was soon, over. Peter lost one of bis feet aud a thumb, and reoeired other severe wounds. He was soon a prisoner in the hands of the troopers, and thus ended the career of one of the most determined scoundrels that utter savagery, tainted by tbe worst vices of civilisation, could produce. But ho was not all had— who is? With all his cruelty and hist Pe*er had one soft place in his heart. He loved his old father, and when lie was flying from justice, aided by a friend, he actually earripd the old m.in something like twenty miles rather than part with him."