New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4294, 24 December 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1874.

The story of Sullivan, tlie IVTaungatiipu murderer, is one of those that would willingly be forgotten. Unfortunately, however, we are. not allowed to forget it. To secure the conviction of the infamous nan" with which ho was connected, and of which, th'ere is too much reason to believe, he was the leader, it was necessary to promise him the Queen’s mercy. The alternative was nauseous, hut it was unavoidable ; and it would have been a stain on the reputation of the colony forever it Sullivan had not been allowed to go free as soon as it was possible to give him the opportunity of going. But it is altogether too much that New Zealand should bo troubled again with, or because of, such a villain. He has been apprehended, it seems, in Victoria, and because Victoria possesses amongst its statutes an Act which renders liable to arrest criminals from other colonies who enter it, he is to be deported thence and returned to this colony. This is an offhand sort of way of doing what appears to be justice, no doubt; but we are by no moans disposed to accept it as fair to this colony, which has already suffered so much, both in reputation and cost, on account of this cheat of the gallows. New Zealand performed her part, in fulfilment of the promise of the Crown to a Queen’s evidence, when she enabled Sullivan to leave her shores. It might have been better for the miserable wretch if the people of Auckland had been less virtuous and vigilant, and had permitted him to go away when he made the first attempt to do so. It would have been u rough,” no doubt, on the San Francisco people to receive a stranger of a character about which there could be so little uncertainty ; but they could not have failed to remember that in their time they had spared to the Australian colonies not a few persons equally distinguished in a somewhat similar walk of life. But the pardoned murderer was unable to find in this colony the means of transport to America. Fortune favored him in his next effort, and he reached England without mishap. With all due respect to the police authorities, and with every possible regard for the feelings of the British community -in the matter, we cannot but regret that he was not suffered to follow his own course there, without the perpetual inquisition of the police. He was not the product of New Zealand. He was not a creature of any one of the colonies. He was a contribution originally from one or other of the three divisions of the United Kingdom, and "when he returned to the . country from which he originally came he carried with him nothing for which this colony, or any colony, was responsible; for he, and all his infamous colleagues, were immigrants from the mother country. If the detectives in London, advised of his advent, had been less demonstrative, it is possible that he might have found his way into a society in which he could have lived, and from the midst of which he would have been heard of no more. But —like the Scotch minister who was asked to pray for rain and brought about a flood —they overdid it. The newspapers were filled with accounts of how they placed temptations in his way, so as to bring the wretched creature within their power, and give them occasion to interfere. He became aware, however, of their too great assiduity ; and whether their attentions drove him to America anil tack again, or no, there is no doubt that they utterly prevented his obtaining any honest employment in England, and so forced him to seek the colonies once more. ,

He succeeded in reaching Sydney undiscovered, it appears, and from thence found his way to Victoria. It is not charged against him that on the voyage, or in the capital of the Cornstalks, he did or said anything to attract attention to him. Ho appears to have passed through Melbourne unobserved. He made his way to AVedderburn, a rural village some eight or ten miles from Inglewood, where he had resided before he bestowed his presence on New Zealand in the first Otago rush, and where his wife still resided —though with another mate. There, it appears, Sullivan was arrested, either on the night of his arrival or the morning afterwards, under a local Act, known as “ The Influx of Criminals Prevention Act'; ” and the next' we hear of him is, that he is deported by Victoria to this colony, and will again be in New Zealand within a few days. AVe do not dispute the legality of the action of the police of Victoria, but we do question its propriety. The English police did no more than watch for any overt act; and, none being committed, suffered the pardoned murderer to leave England unmolested, as an honest dealer in dogs and birds. He may have passed through Sydney and Melbourne, as angels are said to have visited localities in the olden times, “ unawares.” And it may have been right on the part of the Victorian police, under the powers of their special Act, to have pounced upon him on the very moment of his arrival in the locality where he had lived for years before his advent in New Zealand, and where his wife—his, or the wife of some one else—still lived. What he intended to do there does not appear; time was not given him to show his intentions. Those might have been of the most honest sort. But no opportunity was afforded him to prove that he was a changed character. He was pounced upon at once ; and Victoria instantly decided upon relegating him to New Zealand. This is manifestly unfair. It is now rumored that, years ago, when Sullivan was a resident of Wedderburn, there wore many murders in that locality that were not explained. These it is sought by insinuation to trace to the pardoned convict. But why did not Victoria detain him, and try to proye those crimes against him 1 Wo protest against his remission hero. Ho does not return of his free-will. This colony has no power to detain him. A refuge in gaol may, in mercy, bo given to him ; and what may bo done with him will no doubt be an anxious question. That England, which gave him to the colonies originally, and Victoria, which gave him to New Zealand secondly, are bound to assist Now Zealand out of the difficulty in which they have helped to place her, by sending her first, and again, this monster Sullivan, is unquestionable.