WANGANUI. (From a Correspondent of the Wellington Independent.)

New Zealander, Volume 2, Issue 102, 15 May 1847, Page 2

WANGA NUI. (From a Correspondent of the Wellington Independent.)

Wanganui, May 5, 1847. Dr.AR Si v,— The following is the detail, promised fo you in my hurried note per Catharine Jnhnstonc, of the melancholy occuirence therein referred to. On Friday forenoon, the 1 6th ultimo, the natives hereabouts were thrown into great excitement on hearing that one of their people had been shot by a pakeha (white man). On inquiry it appeared that Nga Rangi, a minor chief, had been working for a young naval officer attached to the gun-boat stationed here under the command of Lieut Holmes, and was within the apartment of that officer, receiving his wages, when a pi^to?,, incautiously held by him, went off, and severely wounded Nga Rangi. It was in vain to represent to the speedily assembled natives that it was an accident — their passions were aroused, and they called loudly for bloody utu (payment). The young officer was immediately placed under restraint, and every thing else was said and done which seemed calculated to allay the excitement, but their chief wish was to obtain possession of the officer, and to take him as a responsible hostage to Putiki. Next diy, 17th, the wounded man, Nga Rangi, was reported as going on favourably. He was judicially examined, in the afternoon, by Captain Laye and two of the Magistrates, relative to the affair, and frankly admitted that the shot was accidental, that he entertained no anger against the officer, or Europeans, and that he would endeavour to persuade his people not to be angry at the circumstance. He was sedulously attended by Dr. Phelson of the 58th regt, and liberally supplied by the officers with every required comfort. The Maorics, who, in the first instance, had struck from all work, now returned to their usual employments, and we had every hope that no ill consequences would result from the untoward affair. On Sunday evening, the 18th ult., we were all greatly disturbed by the intelligence, that Mr. Gilfillan, our most remote out-settler, had arrived in town, from his farm, severely wounded, intimating at the same time his fears that his wife and children, who he had left behind, would be massacred. We gathered from those who saw him, on his arrival, the following particulars : Pie had on that afternoon gone home from town, where he had been engaged in business for some one or two previous days, but had but a few minutes arrived when six Maoiies presented themselves in front of doorway. They were, to all appearances, friendly, said they had been out pig-hunting, and wanted some fire and food. He gave the first, and said he had none of the latter to spare. While this korero was going on, Mr. G. was walking up and down on the level space in. front of the house, and when in the act of turning his back to the Maories, he was struck by a tomahawk on the back of the neck. Being near to the door, ho instantly entered and barricaded it. Seeing this, the Maories immediately began to force in the windows with a piece ' of scantling which they found near the door, and some of the party now came round to the back, of the house, and began to smash the door there with a tomahawk. -This being weaker than the front door, Mr.G. leant his back against it, till he began to feel that such resistance on his part could only end in. increase and aggravation of personal injury. Mrs Gilfillan was similarly convinced, and believing that the Maorics were in pursuit of Mr. G.s life, and that they would not injure her or the children, urged him to escape by a small end window, which he readily effected, and as speedily as possible got to Mr. Bell's farm, situated some four or more miles nearer the town than his own. From this he was accompanied to the town by Mr. W. Bell, unr., when he was professionally and otherwise most kindly attended to by Dr. Phelson and the other officers of our small garrison. Early next morning, a party of armed police and in- , habitants was dispatched to Mr. Gilfillan's farm house. About noon they returned to the town, bringing with" them the murdered bodies of Mrs. Gilfillan, and three of her children ; as, also, the sadly mangled and almont ' lifeless person of his second daughter, and two infant babies unhurt. The evidence on the inquest, which I enclose, will furnish the particulars of the astounding catastrophe ; for the llesidont Magistrate promptly requested Samuel King, Esq., J. P., to investigate this sad affair, by acting as Coroner, and to summon a jury- as soon as possible. The intelligence of the catastrophe was, it seems, brought to the missionary pah on the same night it occurred ; and early on the following morning, L9th, thechief John Williams, and a party of his people pro* ceeded up the river in pursuit of the murderers'; while Lieut. Belnavis, 53th regt., and a party of police and inhabitants struck across the country to the west, a re> port having got footing that six or seven armed maorie* had been seen near the heads in the morning, which, originated the suspicion that the murderers were esca- . ping in that direction. But the native party had not ■* got far up the river before they learned that the mur- * derers were in their advance, and that they had been making a boast of their horrid deeds as they proceeded. Fearing .that the wretches would know him and his party as in pursuit of them* William resorted to a very ingenious stratagem, by which he got a fresh body of n\tives to join him in the pursuit, and now pulling with redoubled vigour, they, in the course of the day, overtook the six villians, and after a scuffle and the capsize of one of the canons, he and his party succeeded in securing five of the culprits, the sixfli muking his escape into a wood. He brought them down that evening to

a Pa some three or four miles above the town, and nex* morning Lieut. Holmes went up in the gun-boat, and supported by an armed party of police and civilians, • commanded by Lieut. Collinson, R. E., brought them •afely to town, and lodged them securely in the stockade. On Friday, the 23rd, the Court Martial assembled for the trial of the murderers. I need not lengthen this communication by a detail of the evidence brought before that, suffice it to say that four of the five did not attempt to deny participation in the deeds, and that there was more than enough of other evidence, without their confession, to assure capital conviction. Accord ' ingly the four, viz., Te Ua Win, Te Ware Kuki, Te Awa Uri, and E' Taka, were sentenced to be hanged ; and the boy, named Pu-pu-tai, who appeared to have taken no part in the murders, was condemned to trans- > portation for life. Early on Monday morning, the 26th, a gallows was erected on the hill on which the stockade stands, and shortly after daylight the four murderers were brought forth from the stockade, and after reading over to them, by translation, the proceedings and sentence *of the Court Martial, they were led up on the platform, the ropes were adjusted round their necks, and a few moments afterwards they were launched into eternity. It is said, and I believe on first authority, that jtwas the intention of the criminals to have attempted to strangle one another on the night previous to their execution ; but a French clergyman, M. Le Compto, happening to be here, devoted the greater part of the night .io serious conversation with them, and though he did not effect their conversion from heathenism to christhnity, he was successful in turning them from their additional meditated criminal purpose, and in getting them to confess that they merited the fate which awaited {hem. Moreover, he got them to write to their friends acknowledging the justice of the sentence awarded them, and stating that they had now no wish to live. They met their death with stoical apathy, as "if death were nothing, and nought after death." J omitted to mention, I observe, in its proper place, that the party who went over the day after the murders, met on the road two of Mr. Gilfillan's children, who had escaped on the previous night without injury. From the moment that the relatives and friends up the river heard of the capture of the murderers, they began to collect, and endeavour to excite a gener.il sympathy in their favor. Numbers met at a place about twelve or sixteen miles up the river, called Tunahaere, but it now begins to appear that the majority had assembled more in the capacity of pacificators than as threatening 'belligerents, for since the executiou of the criminals the party has gradually diminished, and now the body has dwindled down to somewhat about a hundred of all ages and sexes. Mr. Matthews, who was among this party twice yesterday, assures me that the general tone of the body is mnch mollified, and that the most violent individual of the whole, viz., Nga Para, is now quiet and desirous to retire. Their anxiety, now, seems to be entirely concentrated on the fate of the boy Pu-pu-tai, and Mr. Matthews believes that were a promise to be given of interceding with the Governor for his pardon, the tana (war party) would be satisfied, and return quietly to their homes. That Captain Laye will exteud to them this boon, on receiving their assurance of peaceable conduct, we have no reason to doubt ; and thus the summary example they have just had may have a powerful moral effect on their future conduct. To Captain Laye the best thanks of this community arc due for his prompt, spirited, and decisive conduct throughout the whole of this affair ; and it is hardly possible to over appreciate the zealous, unceasing, and fearless exertions of Mr. Matthews. Much do both parties owe to this worthy and benevolent man, since the time this first became a British settlement, and his extraordinary and perilous exertions in the present critical instance, calls forth our warmest eulogia, and the hope that his Excellency will in some substantial way remunerate him for his services. As I observed in my last hurried note to you, all the settlers retired to the town, a few days after the catastrophe at Mr Gilftllan's. None, of course, have yet ventured to return, except by day visits. ' Confidence is much shaken— some talk even of abandoning the settlement. One thing is very clear, and that v, if any are to remain, settlers must be made nearer NEIGHBOURS, AND THE SYSTEM OF ABSENTEEISM AS KCOAUDS THE CHOICE OF LAND, MUST BE UTTERLY sacrificed. And assuredly, had not ihat gross evil existed here, we should not now, in all probability, have had to deplore the loss we have sustained, or to have had entailed on us its consequent miseries. I remain, dear sir, Your obedient servant, P.

In addi ion to the particulars furnished in our last number, we are informed that a considerable body of natives had assembled at Parikino, about twenty miles from the town, and that they threatend to take revf-nge for the execution of the murderers whose lives wore so justly forfeited. Every precaution has been adopted by the officer in command; and sixty of the settlers had been armed and formed into four companies and placed under the command of Mr. Nixon and three other magistrates. The settlers speak in the highest terms of Captain Laye, the officer in command, for the promptitude and decision he has evinced, and for the sympathy and kindness he has shewn towards the settlers, particularly to Mr. Gilfillan and the surviving members of his family. Mr. Gilfillan, who has been visited with so terrible a calamity, is a gentleman of extensive information and acquirements. He was an artist of considerable celebrity at Glasgow, where he was professor of drawing at Andersons University. He had travelled on the continent, and when in Portugal had the honor of a sitting from Donna Maria for her portrait. He and his family arrived in the colony in the Mandarin towards the latter end of the year 1641, and having purchased land from the New Zealand Company iv that district, proceeded to Wanganui, where they have since lived respected by all who knew them. The prisoner who has been sentenced to transportation for life is a lad about fourteen years old. As one of the murderers is still at large, Major Richmond has, at Capt. Laye's request, decided that the Wanganui district shall be further subject to the jurisdiction of Martial Law until the Ist of August —Wellington Spectator, May 1.

The following particulars respecting the nppreheiibion of the murderers of the Gillfillan's, have been furnished us by a friend :—" We have just heard the particulars of the capture of the prisoners, the " ruse de guerre" by which they were taken were excellent. The six Puiiki natives who weie in pursuit knew that the murderer* were armed, and as they were only of equal force, the chances were that they would not capture the whole, and it was just possible that they might all getaway. Our friend Johnny Williams, the leader of the pursuers, determined therefore to try to enlist the sjmpathie* of the neighbouring pahs, no easy matter, as they were more likely lo lean to the side of the murderers —he and Ins party began a loud tangi, which »iv answered from both sides of the river, and continued till the subtle Johnny fancied he bad sufficiently excited the sensibilities of his audience. He then got up and told them of the murders, and that iv revenge (he soldiers had stirlounued the J.\ih at Puiiki, aud taken the chiefs,

women and children all priboneis, and that they were the only ones that hud escaped. They declared thut nothing could save their friends but the capture of the murderers, and so artfully worked upon the feelings of those present, that so far from meeting with opposition they manned a large canoe for him, he and his pai i) lying concealed in the bottom till he came up with the fugitives. When they got the prisoners they lost no time in bringing them down, and the natives up the river did not discover the trick till we had them safe in our hands. They me in a great state of excitement and indignation, now that they know the truth. There are to be meetings at Tumaire and other pahs, to discuss the (natter and to see what force can be brought against us, and we may, l think, shortly look for a visit. Maketu's letter turns out all gammon, and he has already began to use a menacing tone. He has with him INgapara, and other friends and relatives of the prisoners, whose voice is loud for war— they are now at Wai Pakeiu, about eight miles fiom this." In a subsequent letter, dated April 26, the same writer states, " that the natives had met and that a warm discussion ensued, which neaily terminated in a fight, the question being peace or war. The up river natives had however expressed a determination to remain quiet. One of the mur derers was a nephew of the chief Ngapara." — Wellington Independent, May 5, 1347.