SHOCKING MURDER AT GAFFNEY’S CREEK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 14, 29 April 1871, Page 4

SHOCKING MURDER AT GAFFNEY’S CREEK.

[From the Makspield Guabdian April B.] A most shocking murder was committed at Gaffney’s Creek on the night of Friday, the 24th ult. or on the morning of Saturday, the 25th, It appears that two old men, neither less than 65 years old, a Prussian named Hine, the other an Irishman named John Quinlan, were jointly interested in two or three bits of ground held under the 42 nd section, and were known to have bad disputes recently about many matters connected therewith, and a few days before some of the residents of the neighborhood acted as arbitrators between them, and the disputes seemed to have been adjusted. However, on the Saturday morning a Mrs Keneally went for some cabbages, which she was in the habit of getting for her pigs, and a shocking sight she found to her horror. The hut in which Quinlan liadlived was smouldering, and some 20 yards from it lay a blackened and charred body, everywhere around being blood-marked, and the grass and soil giving every indication of a hard struggle having taken place. This was the body of old Quinlan. At the door of the hut, or rather where the door had been, was a quantity of blood, and from thence to where the body lay, over a rough ledge of rock some four or five feet high, was a distinct track of the body having been dragged. The woman reported these facts to the police, who were soon on the spot, and on Saturday an inquest was held on the body. The scene of the murder was a most lonely spot, not far from the TYallftb; Reef, bn the right branch of

Gaffney’s Creek, and, according to circumstances, ,may be written of by a novelist as “Lovers’ Walk” or “The Murderer’s Dell’’—circumstances now render the latter name the more appropriate one. There is very little traffic in this direction, but a narrow bridle track leads up the winding of the creek, and the only habitations within a mile of the place where the huts occupied by the two old men, each about half a mile or more apart, Quinlan’s being the more remote, and each situated on a garden partially cleared of heavy wood and scrub. Except the patches occupied for cultivation, the sides of the hill are very steep ; the foliage in the bed of the creek is beautiful, and the stream clear as crystal. At the inquest, held by Mr Warden Butler, the facts above referred to were deposed by Mrs Keneally and several other witnesses. Mrs Keneally, in addition, stated that on Friday evening Quinlan called at her place going homewards, and, as the old German was known to have uttered threats against him, she wished him to stay for the night. He, however, declined, saying he was able for him.