DUNEDIN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 261, 7 March 1874, Page 3

DUNEDIN.

(From pur own correspondent.) ft is with regret I have to announce, prfint so fur os present information ■a iifost cold blooded murder, which took ; ])l«de in the immediate vicinity of Pungr din. The particulars available are as yet imperfect, still sufficient has transpired to warrant the belief that a very serious • offrijt'ft indeed has been committed'against thf> person. At an early hour this (Snnrlny) morning, the police were advised that a man named Nicholas M'Donald, a laborer employed for some time past on some small contrasts at Green Island, hod met his death by shooting. The po|i(33 at once repaired to the spot, and,

shortly afterwards returned with a man named Pat Long in custody, charged with having wilfully caused tho man's death. A variety of reports are in circulation respecting the sad event, and, pending the j judicial enquiry fixed to take place tomorrow, it is impossible to say how far any or either of these.are correct. Long, the accused man, is proprietor of an hotel at Green Island, known as the Kaikorai Hotel. Deceased, it appears, had been in and about the hotel during the afterpart of the day, and, when the offence took place, he is said to have been very much the worse for liquor. Thus far the reports of the occurrence would seem to agree. According to one, and I believe the most reliable version, the deceased and a mate of his were in the bar of the hotel about 11 p.m. An altercation took place betwixt them, and they went outside in all probability, for the purpose of settling their dispute by an appeal to the fist. Sometime afterwards he (deceased) wanted to get back again into- the hotel. This the landlord refused; ■ M'Donald then commenced kicking at the back door. Long, who was inside'at the time, was hfard to say, You b -, if you knock my property about 'in! that way I'll shoot you. He then wen'tf.irito an adjoining room, and immediately made his appearance with a revolver?in his hand. He went outside, and, in going out, the report of a pistol was heard. Deceased was picked up immediately afterwards-dead, with .a ; pistol phot through his right temple.' According to another M'Donald had, during the day, insulted Long's wife, although it. is but'right to add that it is not alleged the insult was an aggravated onej or indeed one that a woman serving in the bar of an hotel has any reason to be greatly with. Be that as it may, a murder would seem; to have been enmuitted, and we'shall, in all probability, see whether or m\b the authorities of New Zealand are*: firm enough to discharge the duty they owe to the public, and the public safety. I make , that remark with the lively recollection of a flagrant act of the miscarriage of justice, ior I can. term it nothing else, which took place eighteen months ago in ; Southland. On that occasion a woman i who in cold blood murdered either two or ! three of her children, was condemned to die. The circumstances warranted an investigation as to the statcof the woman's mind, but certainly they did not warrant an unconditional remission of the sentence of death. Nevertheless, the sentence was mitigated by the Government on the very first representation of the case. The woman was fortunate enough to secire the good offices of some Wesleyan Methodist clergymen and their followers, and without further trouble sho escaped the awful fate meted out to her.

At the Coroners Inquest alluded to by our correspondent Long was committed to take his trial at the Supreme Court for wilful murder.