THE MURDER AND SUICIDE AT TARNDALE.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 103, 22 February 1868, Page 5

THE MURDER AND SUICIDE AT TARNDALE.

We give the following particulars of the late tragedies at Tarndale from the Kelson Examiner. The “Accommodation House, at which the inquest was held, is near the head of the Wairau River, on the overland road between Nelson and Canterbury, about ninety miles distant from Nelson. The spot where Augarde shot Charlie, as far as we can make out from the evidence, was between the Accommodation House and the Tarndale station, which are about two miles apart ; and the junction of the Alma with the Severn, where Augarde shot himself, is about seven miles beyond —the latter-named rivers being tributaries of the Acheron, the main feeder of the Clarence. Mr. Carter’s station, where Augarde resided, is on the banks of the Acheron, a short distance above its junction with the Clarence, and some twenty-live miles distant from Tarndale station. We proceed to give the particulars of the inquests : INQUEST ON THE BODY OF GERMAN CHARLIE. Minutes of an Inquest held before me, Graham Lord Greenwood, on the body of Charles (known as Smith or Mai'tin), a German, at Tarndale, in the Province of Nelson, New Zealand, on the Second day of February, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-eight. The following persons, having answered to their names, elected Adolph Wiesenhavern as their foreman Adolph Wiesenhavern (foreman), George Guillet, Charles Matthews, George Leighton, George Goble, Matthew Green, John Slow. James Rushton, Richard Thow. After being duly sworn, they viewed the body, on which two wounds were visible—one at the back, close below the shoulder-blade, and cloSp to the arm as it would hang naturally from the shoulder, and on the right side; the other on the left side, in front, just below the ribs, and two and ahalf inches from the central line down the body. Charles Sparrow, being sworn, said: I am a bricklayer and brickmaker. Last Wednesday, about a quarter to five, p.m.,

the 29th December, 1867, a stranger to me rode up to the window of this room, and stopped about four or lire minutes at most, on horseback. I was working at the brickyard at the time, with a man known as Charlie the German, about a quarter of a mile oft; he came to me at the brickyard. I was putting off a barrow of bricks into the hacks. lie said, “ Good evening ” I said, “ Good evening, sir.” He said, “Is there anybody at the station ?” I said, “Ho, sir, they are all down at the woolshed, except us two.” He had a gun on his loft shoulder, when speaking to me, and while speaking, moved it, and placed it across the left arm, just above the wrist. I was about twenty-five or thirty yards off my mate at this time. He said, “ Charlie, I have a letter for you,” speaking to my mate, and immediately I heard the report of his gun. He thou rode away past me as hard os his horse could carry him. He canle within two yards of me. I looked up at him, and he at me, as he passed, but neither spoke. I then went up a slight rise, about ten yards off, to sec which way he went. I saw him galloping hard towards the Clarence. I then went to Charlie, and asked him what was the matter; and he replied, “That man has shot me.” I then asked his name, and he said, “ Ivy Augarde.” I said, “Is that the rn fTTTyornrrula fuss witli a few weeks ago ?” He said, “Yes.” He said, “Take me home to the house, if you can.” He dropped after I began to talk to him. 1 asked him if he could walk to the house. He said, “Ho.” I carried him about half way to the house. He said, “Tut me down, I cannot go any further ; I have such a pain.” He said, “ I am going to die ; turn me over on to my face.” I said, “ Charlie, I will go to the Accommodation House, and see if I can got help to carry you.” He said, “ Yes do, and make haste back as quick as you can.” I met Mr. Edward Hope about half a mile from the house, at the end of the lake. I told him what had happened;-he then rode hard to the Ac-commodation-house. Mr. Shrimpton was there, and came over with the keeper of the house, George Goble. I told Mr. Hope I thought he would be dead before we got there ; we went back as fast ns we could, and found him dead. Mr. Hope helped with others to carry him to the house close

Ey a Juror; I found him in the same position as when I left him. When Augardo got to the house wo heard him cooey, and Charlie answered him. Charlie said, “I don’t know who it is; it is perhaps some travellers, or some one from the station ; lie has a horse, lot him come over here.” While standing, before he fell, Charlie said he could not see me. Henry Watson, from Hr. Carter’s, was here two days before, and stayed two or three hours talking to Charlie. I do not know what passed between them. I have hoard some talk about a letter being open, about which there was some dispute, but Charlie never said anything to me about it. I identify the body in the next room as that of Charlie, the German. From the time Augarde spoke to me, to the time I heard the shot fired, 1 kept on with my work without looking up. 1 did not see him in the act of firing. Whilst carrying Charlie, he said nothing about the cause of Ids being shot; he only talked about some land near Melbourne. Charles Sparrow, recalled, said: I have seen a body lying near the Alma, it is the body of the man whom I believe fired ; Mr. Goble and Mr. Shrimpton were with me. Mr. Goble believed it to bo the body of Ivanhoe Augarde. 1 had been told by Kemp that Ivy Augarde was dead, and went on Thursday morning to see the body, and remained there by the body till late in the evening. Percy Augarde, being sworn, said: I came here from Kelson, Friday, the 24th January last, and saw my brother Ivanhoe next day, and stopped with him that night, and the next Monday night, and I then, on .the Tuesday, went with him to Mr. Carter’s station, where we stopped Tuesday night. He wrote some seven letters that night; one to Thomas Carter, one to James Carter, one to George Gee, one to Miss Gee, one to Moffatt, and two to myself. I saw the two letters to myself on Wednesday, about three in the afternoon, and read both of them [letters produced and read]. He said nothing to me of what he intended to do to Charlie the German, but mentioned the quarrel, and asked me what he should do. I said he ought to horsewhip him. The next day Mr. Shrimpton told me my brother was dead, and I started soon after to where he was lying dead. By a Juror : T told no one on Wednesday of what the letters of my brother contained. I told no one till I had heard of his death. I had no motive for concealing the contents. I came to the Clarence because my brother wrote for me to come. I did hot

suppose lie meant to destroy himself. My brother did not ask me any questions about who were at Tarndalo. Ido not know, and had not heard the contents of a letter to Miss Gee. I found my brother shot near the Alma. . Watson and Murphy were at the tent on Monday afternoon when I got there with my brother. Watson said he had been to Tarndalo ; as far as I know they only spoke on business. He (my brother) spoke to me of the fight with Ger-* man Charlie—said he would not fight linglish fashion ; that he (Augarde) wanted to fight “rough and tumble;” that the fight was stopped by some man. My father gave me a pound when I left home. My brother never said anything about continuing the quarrel with German Charlie. He said when we first met, “ It is well you came in time or I should have engaged some one else.” I saw my brother last alive between ten and eleven, a.m., on Wednesday. The letters my brother wrote were all closed and directed. He did not give me the letters, only left them in his box, and gave me no directions about them. When I went to his box I went for a shirt, he having allowed me to put my things in the box. All the letters were inside on the top of the shirt. The other letters are in the box still. I was boring posts on Wednesday, and went to change my shirt because I sometimes do so at any time of day. I changed my shirt. I took nothing more than I have stated from my brother’s box. I thought from his letters, that he meant to do something with himself, but did not think he would kill himself. I made the remark at the brickyard, “Here is where Ivy stood.” I had been told by Charles Spanow. I was in bed when my brother wrote the letters, and was asleep. I awoke when he came to bed, and he appeared us usual. The only difference I noticed was that my brother was more gloomy than lie used to he. I had not been with my brother before I came up for about two years, I know my brother’s writing, While coming hero on Thursday with Mr. Stow I said I supposed my brother meant to drown himself from his letter.

Charles Matthews, being sworn, said : I am a shearer. I was shearing at Jeffrey’s, and the deceased came to me and asked me to read a letter. I did so, this letter was among papers that he took from his pocket, and I opened it and saw that it was an account between him and Mr. Carter. He then took it from me and gave me another, and said this is for Kate. I did not know from whom it came till I had read part of it. I did not quite finish it, but saw that it came from Ivanhoc Augarde. After I returned it he said, “ This will spite Ivy.” The letter was directed to Miss Gee. I heard that it was shown all over the place; Miss Gee told me so. The jury, after viewing the body, returned tlxc following verdict; —“ That the deceased, Charlie the German, died from the effect of a gunshot wound-dhc bullet entering the back of his Ksdy below the right shoulder, and out below the heart in front of the body, Inflicted wilfully and deliberately by Ivanhoe Augarde.” The following letters were produced. One of the two to Percy Augarde appeared to be a draft of that given below : “ Clarence Station, Jan. 28. “ Mr. Percy Augarde, — “My dear Brother—l bid you We shall never meet again in this world. lam very sorry to leave you, but it must be. J leave you all I have in the world ; all is yours. You can get my mare when she comes from the Wairau Valley. You must go to Mr. G. Geo, Wairau Valley, and he will give you the deeds of my land in lleuwlcktown, and you must ask Miss Gee for a packet of letters that ! gave her to take care of for me. She has got the deed of my laud iu Wairau Valley. I have five months’ wages due from Mr. Thomas Carter. You must pay any debts that I have ; the people will send their bills in when they hear what’ has happened. You must piy all that is right. My house is let at present to Mr. John Smart, but you can do as you like with it; he is only renting it. Perhaps Mrs. Smart, will give you u bill for but don’t you pay it. Now, my clear Brother, I must bid you good-bye, and I hope you will get on better than your unhappy brother. We shall never meet in this world again, my dear boy. “ I. S. AUGARDE.’’ “Dear Brother—Never trust her in any one’s keeping but yourself [meaning the mare probably.] “ Clarence Station, January 2S, “ To Mr. T. Carter, — “ Dear Sir —I have engaged my brother for twenty-five shillings a-week. I hope he will suit you ; he is a smart lad. “ I. S. Augarde.”