New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, April 28, 1847.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 182, 28 April 1847, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, April 28, 1847.

It is our painful to record the particulars of the murder at Wanganui of a family of four persons under circumstances of the most revolting and barbarous nature, intelligence of which has just been received at Wellington. We believe the following will be found to be a correct account of the circumstances. About half past seven on the evening of the 18th instant, an alarm was given by an outsettler of the name of Gilfillan, who lives on the south side of the river Wanganui about six miles from the town, and who came in badly wounded ; on being taken across the river to the town he gave the following account to Captain Laye the resident • Magistrate. He said he was in his stockyard near his house when he saw seven natives (one of them a boy) who asked him for food. As they pressed upon him and wounded him in the neck he retreated from

them and got within his house and fastened the door, but they immediately beat in the windows and forced an entrance. At the earnest persuasion of his wife, who laboured under the impression that the Maories would not offer violence to women or children, Mr« Gilfillan was induced to set off for the town to procure assistance. This was between five and six o'clock, but on reaching the town two hours afterwards, the night proved very darkanditwas impossible to do anything until the following day. The next morning the party who visited the spot witnessed a most horrid and revolting spectacle. Gilfillan's Tiouse had been burnt down by the Maories, his wife, his daugther, and two of his sons, had been savagely murdered, and their bodies dreadfully cut and mangled by tomahawks, were found lying near the house; the other four children had escaped, but one of them was so badly wounded she was not expected to survive. Towards the evening a party of the natives of the Putiki pa, who are described as having behaved in the most praiseworthy manner, set off in pursuit of the murderers and returned the following morning, the 20th, having captured five of their number. They were met on their return by Lieut. 4 Holmes in the gun boat, and Lieut. Page with a detachment of fifty soldiers, who marched along the bank of the river and accompanied them to the town. An inquest was held the following day on the bodies of the murdered persons when four out of five of the prisoners were identified by Mr. Gilfillan as belonging to the party who were at his house on the evening of the 18th. The Jury who were composed of the most respectable inhabitants of Wanganui, returned a verdict of Wilful Murder against the four prisoners who had been identified. The prisoners were confined in the stockade, and were to be tried the following day (the 22nd) by a Court Martial, and if found guilty it was believed that the sentence would be forthwith carried into execution. One of the murderers was still at large", bat it was hoped he would be shortly taken; and Maketu who was recently pardoned for his participation in Rangihaeata's rebellion, had given assurances of his active assistance in procuring the apprehension of this miscreant. This horrid catastrophe has caused the deepest sensation at Wanganui and in Wellington. No assignable motive has been discovered for the perpetration of this* dreadful crime. The murders were committed on the evening of the same Sunday on which Rangihaeata robbed Brown's station at Kapiti, but it is not believed that the murderers acted at his instigation: no provocation of any kind had been offered by Gilfillan or his family, which might serve as a pretext for violence, no feud or quarrel existed between these savages and their unfortunate victims, who appear to have been deliberately murdered in cold blood. And in addition to the above, there are two circumstances connected with this appalling tragedy, which throw over it a deeper gloom; and heighten its atrocity. The murderers are said to be all young men, the eldest not exceeding twenty years of age ; their victims were an unresisting woman and her children. All these considerations • are calculated to excite the most serious apprehensions, and to create a strong feeling of insecurity and distrust in the minds of the outsettlers.

Since writing the above, we have been furnished with the following particulars by a person of the name of Taylor, who has been recently residing at Wanganui, and who returned yesterday to Wellington. Taylor, who during his stay at Wanganui was employed in brickmaking, resided on the opposite side of the river to that on which the town is situated, and about two miles higher up: on Sunday evening the 18th inst., at about half-past seven o'clock, Mr. Gilfillan passed his house, accompanied by one of Mr. Bell's sons, and called for help, saying he was bleeding to death. The night being very dark, two of the men who were living with Taylor immediately went to his assistance and escorted him to the town. The next morning, the 19th, at daybreak, Mr. Bell came to Taylor and proposed they should go and look after Gilnllan's family. They accordingly proceeded to the town and having received arms from the Resident

Magistrate, in company with Mr. Nixon, Mr. Power, Sergeant Barry and half a dozen of the armed police, and other persons, in number about 18 ; they set off for Gilfillan's house. On ascending the first hill, they found a handkerchief and pieces of clothes" strewed about. Three miles further on they fell in with two of Gilfillan's children, a girl six years of age, and a boy eight years old. They asked the children where they had been, and they said they had been sleeping in the swamp all night, and that their mother, brothers, and sisters, had been murdered. They then gave the children some food, and gave them in charge of two natives, to take them to the Rev. R. Taylor's house. Four miles further on they came in sight of Gilfillan's house, from which they saw a light smoke ascending : on approaching the house they found it had been set on fire ; the roof had fallen in, and every thing had been destroyed ; and the half-consumed timbers were still burning. At the back of the house, and about ten yards distant, a most horrible sight presented itself. There lay the body of Mrs. Gilfillan, her head cut and mutilated in the most dreadful manner: the wounds appeared to have been inflicted with an axe which was lying near the body covered with the blood and hair of the deceased. Near to her lay the body of her second daughter, a girl of seventeen, her head mutilated in the same horrible way, and having also a severe wound on the right wrist ; at the feet of the mother was the body of one of her youngest children, a boy about three years old, with the back part of his scull completely cut off. About ten yards further to the right, at the foot of some rising ground, they discovered the body of another of the family, a boy about 13 years old, with the backpart of his scull cut off by a tomahawk. *On descending the hill and proceeding towards the stockyard they found Gilfillan's third daughter, a girl about eleven years old, in a sitting posture with her hands resting on the ground. A blow from a tomahawk had inflicted a frightful wound on her head laying open her face from the forehead to the chin. There she had been left by these monsters exposed in this state to the influence of the weather, her] infant sister about three months old lay on her knees dabbled in the blood that had flowed from her wounds. Dr. Rees, who had accompanied the party, promptly rendered every assistance in his power to the unhappy sufferer. Serjeant Barry and the armed police were employed in making litters to remove the bodies of the murdered persons, and the two children were also carefully taken to town. On Monday evening, the 19th, the natives of the Putiki pa set off in pursuit of the murderers, and captured five of them, whom they brought to Wanganui about eight o'clock the next?" morning. The youngest of them is not more than fourteen years old and the oldest about twenty ; when taken they each had on awhite shirt belonging toMr. Gilfillan; one of the murderers is said to be a nephew of Ngapara's. The bodies of the unfortunate sufferers were buried in the cemetery at Wanganui in the same grave on the 21st. Mr. Gilfillan was at one time supposed to be getting better, but on hearing of the fate of his unfortunate wife and family, he became worse, and his recovery is uncertain ; no hopes are entertained of the recovery of his daughter.

Postcrif}t, Wednesday Morning. — The Katherine Johnstons arrived this morning from Taranaki having put mto Wanganui on her way, and has brought intelligence that a Court Martial has been held on the prisoners, when four were sentenced to be hanged and one transported for life, and that the sentence of the Court on those condemned to death has been carried into execution.

The Governor Grey left Wanganui on the morning of the 22nd for Wellington, with a full cargo and a number of passengers, but on her way down the river she unfortunately got upon a stump or snag, which has occasioned so much damage as to render it necessary for her to put back for repairs. The Katherine Johnstone had been recently sent to Taranaki to her new owner, so that the means of communication were suddenly suspended. On Monday last the Hero sailed from Porirua to Wanganui, she may be expected to return to Wellington by the latter end of the week.

It is stated in the Sydney Morning Herald, that the remainder of the 58th Regiment will shortly leave Sydney for New Zealand . We believe that arrangements are making to station an entire regiment in either division of the island, instead of detachments of different regiments as at present ; but it is not yet determined which regiment will be stationed in this district.

W. Fox, Esq., the New Zealand Company's Resident Agent at Nelson, has been appointed by his Excellency to the Commission of the Peace of the colony of New Zealand.

On Monday Mr. Devenish, who had starte< with a herd of cattle which he intended tc drive to Taranaki, returned to Wellington having learned from the natives along th< coast that Rangihaeata would not allow them to pass. The cattle have heen left at Uruhi. Private letters have been received from Manawatu to the effect that Rangihaeata had threatened the lives of the settlers there, From the close neighbourhood of Rangihaeata's party, the settlers in that district are exposed to considerable danger.