Murder by Aboriginals.

Manawatu Herald, 26 July 1900, Page 2

Murder by Aboriginals.

A terrible tragedy is reported to have occurred near Gilgandra, a township on the Castlereagh river, about three hundred miles north-west of Sydney. Four aboriginals, who were employed by a selector named Mawby> attacked the family. They killed a son, Perdval, one of the daughters, Hilda, and a school-teacher, Miss Kerz. Mrs Mawby, her daughter Grace and a niece, Elsie Clark, were dangerously wounded. So terrible are their injuries that there is small hope of them recovering. It appears that .the natives, having ascertained that Mawby was sleeping away from home, attacked the women and children during the night. As the victims rose from their beds and attempted to escape, the murderers battered in their heads, and horribly mutilated them with a tomahawk. One little boy escaped by creeping under a bed. A strong force of mounted police and a number of settlers are pursuing the murderers. | Grace Mawby is dead, and there are but faint hopes for the mother and Miss Clark. One of the boys who escaped states that he and two brothers were sleeping in a room adjoining the house whenthe 1 blacks knocked at the door.

Percy, aged fifteen, opened the door, and was at once knocked down and killed. He heard the other blacks outside say, " Sail into them— kill them all." The second boy escaped by getting under a bed, and the third, who managed to get out, ran for his father. Mawby, on arrival, first found the body of Miss Kerz, lying, clad in a nightdress, some distance from the house. The girl Hilda's body was a few yards away in a creek. Both the front and back doors were smashed in. Mawby rushed round to the blacks' camp, but found that they had all cleared out. All the women were sleeping in one room. Hilda and Miss Kerz managed to escape, but were pursued and cut down with tomahawks. Various reasons are given for the tragedy. One is that Mawby owed the natives a little money for work. Another is that Mrs Mawby tried to get Jimmy's wife (a white womau) to leave him. This woman has been arrested. She was caught making across country. She told the police that only Jimmy and Joe were engaged in the tragedy. When they came back Jimmy said they had killed all the Mawbys, and told his wife to clear out or he would kill her too. Joe Porter, a black, and a boy belonging to the gang, have been arrested while hiding in the bush. They stated that they had nothing to do with the murders. Mrs Mawby's dying depositions stated that she saw only Jimmy and another black o ocke y) in her room > but she heard others outside. The police in following the tracks of the blacks found that they showed great cunning in effacing the marks by walking in each other's footsteps. The two Governors are notorious characters. Jimmy is an ex-tracker. Mrs Mawby has succumbed to her injuries. During a conscious interval before death, she stated that Jockey Underwood, the third black accompanying the Governors, killed the boy Percy. At the inquest on the victims of the tragedy, Albert Mawby, aged nine years, gave evidence. He stated that he was awakened by hearing a black in his 'room, who threatened to blow his brains out. The child slipped out of bed while his brother Percy was being killed, and ran for his father. George Mawby, a cousin of the former witness, aged thirteen, who was sleeping in the same room heard Mrs Mawby and the girls screaming out. He went into the sitting-room, and saw the blacks kill Percy. He heard the voice of another black outside (which he recognised as that of Jimmy Governor) urging his companions inside to dash out the children's brains as he " had enough of the Mawbys." The boy then ran back to the bedroom and hid under the bed till the murders left. The wife (a white woman) ot the native Jimmy Governor, said that the man had a grudge against Mrs Mawby for making him pay a few shillings for rations. Jimmy told her that if Jack Underwood had not been so slow he would have killed Mawby and the two boys who were sleeping with him. A SECOND ATROCITY. Information reached Sydney that an elderly crippled man named Alex McKay had been killed by two blacks at Sportsman's Hollow, on the road to Cassilis, on the Mudgee. McKay's wife was dangerously wounded. The murderers are described as identical with those who perpetrated the Mawby affair. They carried rifles and tomahawks, and had two horses, which it is supposed they have stolen. The scene of the tragedy is in the direction the Gilgandra murderers were reported to be making. Great excitement prevails in the district. A large party of armed horsemen are in hot pursuit of the criminals. A THIRD ATROCITY. News was received that the black fellows concerned in the Mawby massacre to-day killed a woman named O'Brien and her child ten miles from Merriwa. Mrs Bennet a nurse was staying with Mrs O'Brien, who was near her confinement, and was sitting in the kitchen at 11 in the forenoon, when two blacks armed with rifles, rushed in and fired several shots. Mrs Bennet was wounded on the shoulder, breast and thigh, but escaped through a window, and rar/to O'Brien, a short distance away, and told him to go for help to the nearest neighbour, who lived seven miles off. When he returned there was no trace of the blacks. Mrs O'Brien was dead in the kitchen, shot through the breast aud 1 tomahawked. The child was dead, having been tomahawked on the head. Mrs Bennet's condition is serious.