DREADFUL MURDER NEAR AUCKLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 126, 4 June 1853, Page 10

DREADFUL MURDER NEAR AUCKLAND.

[From the " New Zealander," May 4.]

Ocr peaceable neighbourhood, —in which the more serious crimes are of such exceedingly rare occurrence, —has been startled by the pevpetration of a murder attended with circumstances of the most foul and revolting atrocity. The victim was Mr. Richard Rathbone, a baker, and the scene of the enormity a house in which he resided alone at the Cabbage-tree Swamp Road, within about a mile and a-half of the town. The facts, so far as they transpired at the Coroner's inquest, will be learned from the following report of the evidence given at the inquisition.

Mrs. Mary Justin, residing at Cabbage-tree Swamp Road, near the house of the deceased, deposed,—On Friday morning she observed a slow smoke from Rathbone's house; she sent a child to get a light; the child returned, stating that the fire was out, and that she could not find Mr. Rathbone; witness went herself in the evening to take some butter and milk; she sent her child upstairs; the child told her she saw no bed there; witness perceived a singed smell; she saw only deceased's hat and walking-stick. On Saturday morning she asked Mr. Home, a neighbour, to examine the house, as she could see Mr. Rathbone nowhere. They went into the bed-room, Mr. Home first. Mr. Home cried out "There he is!" she saw deceased lying straight in bed, and his foot burned. His face was the colour of the Maories. The bed-clothes were much burned. The bed was on the floor; there was straw about it; she saw drops of blood on the floor; saw Mr. Rathbone last alive on Thursday; the bed-room door was open; deceased was in the habit of fastening his door at night, having been once robbed.

Thomas Home being sworn, —having stated his accompanying the last witness to the house, early on Saturday morning, continued:—He went upstairs and saw a bolster lying on the floor, also the frame-work of a bed, like a stretcher. Deceased had been in the habit of sleeping there because the lower room was damp. Saw in the room a stool, and snuffers and snuffer-tray. On going into the inner room below, saw deceased lying burnt from the middle down. All the centre of the bed was burnt. Deceased was a quiet sober man. Witness came to town and informed the police. Having with the police made further examination, he saw a pool of blood, and marks of scuffling: it appeared as if some person had slipped in the blood. He had often seen a cutlass, or a long cavalry sword, with deceased : this could not be found, or could a watch which he knew deceased possessed. He did not think that a noise in the house would have been heard at Mrs. Justin's.

Corporal John Trafford, of the Armed-Police Force, deposed that he had that day examined the house, having been ordered to do so, about half-past ten in the morning. On entering the front door, in the room about 3 yards from the door he saw blood, which he traced to the inside room close by deceased's feet, where there lay a pool of blood. At the entrance of the inner room he found on the jamb of the door a blow as if from the head of an axe, and blood sprinkled over where the blow was. At the place where deceased's head lay there was a pool of bluod on the floor. Examined the body, and found a large cut on the left side of the chin. The left leg of deceased was entirely burnt away. At the foot of the bed, where the door opened, there were signs of dirty feet, mud mixed with blood. A piece had been knocked off a chest of drawers near the top, as from a fresh blow. Found in the kitchen a bottle that deceased had used to put his candle in. A plated candlestick, a looking-glass, and various other articles remained in the house. The drawers in the room were not locked, but they were not drawn out. It did not seem to him that the drawers bad been ransacked.

Dr. J. J. R. Dalliston deposed that he had made a post mortem examination. He found a severe wound on the back of deceased's head, wmch seemed to have been made with a tomahawk or small axe ; about the size of half acrown of the external table of the skull had been cut away. There was a second wound on the left lower jaw, likely to have been caused by an instrument of the same kind ;*the bone was broken into several pieces or shivers. There was a third wound at the right angle of the lower jaw. This was evidently a stab. It must have wounded some of .the branches of the external carotid artery, which would have bled largely.

He thought this must have been the immediate cause of death. There were two stabs on the right arm, and two on the left shoulder; there were also several severe bruises about the arms and shoulders. The wounds had certainly been inflicted during life. The whole of the body from the chest downwards was disorganized by fire. The point of a sword would have inflicted the wounds which he had described as stabs. It was quite impossible that deceased could himself have inflicted the wound on the back of the head.

Mr. James George, baker in Auckland, deposed, that he saw deceased on Thursday evening about 7 o'clock, in his (witness's) own house. Deceased seemed then in good health. He had been seven months in the employment. He was a steady, sober man. On leaving, he made an appointment to come to his work the next morning.

It not being considered necessary to bring forward any other witnesses to these facts, the Jury immediately found a verdict of " Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown." The Government have offered a reward of £50 for the detection of the perpetrator or perpetrators of the horrible deed, and the police are vigilantly on the alert, bnt no satisfactory clue to the discovery had been obtained.