THE WOODVILLE MURDER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5204, 26 November 1877, Page 2

THE WOODVILLE MURDER.

In our issue of Saturday we published a telegram, received by the Inspector of Police from. Palmerston, stating that a man named George Ollandt had been found murdered in the Woodville bush. On receipt of this intelligence Mr. Atcheson at once communicated with the police authorities in Napier, and sent orders to Constable Purcell, of Foxton, to proceed to Palmerston and render assistance in endeavoring to trace out the perpetrator of the crime.- Later in the day intelligence was received that Constable Gillespie had arrested Harry Thompson, a mate of the deceased, who had been working with him in the bush. Some towels were found in the room where Thompson slept, which had spots of blood on them, and a leaf out of a book which was found near the body of the deceased corresponded with another leaf, apparently out of the same book, which was also found in Thompson’s room. The wounds found on the body are amply sufficient to cause death. There is a severe wound on the cheek and left temple, and the left eye is knocked completely out. Inspector Scully, of Napier, accompanied by two constables, lost no time in reaching Woodville after they were informed of what had occurred, and are now in charge of the body, which awaits a coroner’s inquest, which will be held at Woodville to-day. Dr. Sherman, of Palmerston, has been sent for to make a post mortem examination, the result of which will probably reach us to-night, together with the verdict of the jury. Harry Thompson (the man who has been arrested on suspicion) is said to be a native of Australia, and a man of intelligence and education. The murdered man is, we believe, a Scandinavian, many of whom are settled in that locality. What has been the incentive to crime in this instance has not transpired, but may be elicited at'the inquest today. It is supposed that deceased and his mate quarrelled, and that words led to blows ; but at present this is only a conjecture, although it seems highly probable that such £was the case. Crimes of a serious character are happily of very rare ocoux'renoe in the colony, and especially so in the locality where this tragedy has occurred. Nowhere in New Zealand perhaps is a more hard working and industrious and law-abiding population to be found than in and around Woodville and the neighboring settlements in the Seventy-Mile Bush, and the crime of murder has never, that we are aware of, been perpetrated in the district before. In our next issue we shall most likely he able to lay further particulars before our readers.