THE INFORMER OF THE CARL ATROCITIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 23, 27 January 1873, Page 4

THE INFORMER OF THE CARL ATROCITIES.

The Southland Netvs gives the following delightful account of the notorious Dr Murray, who has lately turned Queen's evidence in the Carl murder case :* — Some of our readers may remember a Dr Murray, who, abont nine years ago, held the position of Resident Surgeon at the Invercargill Hospital. He was a good looking dandified young man, gifted with any amount of modest assurance, and a suave manner (when it suited his purpose) that invariably extorted the admiration of ladies., After a time he disappeared from the scene, not, however, if we are rightly informed, before giving some of his patronesses reason to suspect that their protege was scarcely the exemplary character they had given him credit for being. Not long afterwards, Dr Murray was heard of in Melbourne, where he had, thanks to his peculiar tacticß, so far inaugurated himself with >the ladies as to induce them to assign him tbe position of surgeon to the Leichardt search expedition fitted out under their auspices. How he abused the trust reposed in him, drank the " medical comforts," and ignobly deserted his comrades in their dire extremity, it is almost needless to repeat here ; there are few grown-up people in the colonies to whom the episode is not familiar. For a long time nothing was heard of the " nice young man " further than that he had contrived to reinstate himself in the good graces of the ladies, and through their influence to obtain a snug appointment. Tired of the monotony of official life, it seems tbe doctor some j time ago resolved to exchange it for the j more exciting pursuit of "black-bird catching." He chartered a vessel, trapped a number of South Sea Islanders, and, had they behaved well, would, no doubt, have sold them honorably to some honest planter. Unfortunately, the miserable wretches objected to tjheir enforced emigration. They tried to escape, and the tender-hearted doctor was under the painful necessity of allowing his men to slaughter about 70 of them, The circumstances by some means reached the ears of the authorities, and Dr Murray, who seems to come out of the adventure with less profit than he expected, felt it to be a duty to turn Queen's evidence against the master and some of the crew, whose trial aii KJjrGuojr iWi' UluFucr. vroo aciiouuy: ioported. That he should be allowed so to escape the consequences seems td have gone sorely against the grain of the majority of the Melbourne journals, which have, with singular, "unanimjty, denounced , the informer Bsjmdfefculpaole than^th'osel under trial. There is, however according •to the correspondent of the Otago Times one exception, a religious newspaper, the

Independent having taken on Use] f , to say. "that the heart "oft Dr. Murray had] been touched, and that his eyes bad' been opened to the impropriety of his conduct.'' This pious periodical "goeß oh to recommend that. 'the] services of the penitent should* be engaged in the work of suppressing Jthe South' Sea slave, trade I Com--ment is needless, but we. should like to point out lhat. Sullivan, of Maungatapu notoriety, who once " assisted" at a little massacre, and betrayed his accomplices, ought now to be chief Commissioner^ of Police for the Colony of NeyvyZealand.- "