MURDER AT AUCKLAND.

Patea Mail, 2 October 1880, Page 3

MURDER AT AUCKLAND.

Particulars of the murder by a Fiji native at Auckland show that the native is from Api, New Hebrides, one of the most savage races in the South Sea Islands. He asked the people where he was stopping to buy him an axe. His excuse was that his head was all in a whirl, and there is no doubt he had been drinking, Mrs Ewington, wife of a settler living near the scene of the murder of Eees, was passing near the spot on the night of the tragedy, with her daughter, and heard sounds, blows, and groans. Mr Ewington had been asked to engage the same Fijian, but having seen him on board a vessel, and disliked his appearance, he declined to hire him. At the Police Court the Fijian was brought up on a charge of murder, and two other charges of assault with intent to kill. He pleaded guilty on all three charges, and was remanded pending result of inquest.

STRUGGLE WITH the MURDERER.

The pursuit of the Fiji desperado nearly resulted in two more murders. Mr T. Melville, an invalid living near the asylum at Auckland, says the Fijian was seen crouching in his wash-house the morning after the murder. A servant took fright at seeing him, and Mr Melville went out, and thus describes what followed : “ Imagining he was a half-witted Maori, and had been seeking shelter for the night, I took him by the collar of the coat and gently showed him the way outside. I was not rough to him. I then saw that he

had an axe in his hand, and I stepped back a pace or two. He immediately advanced towards me, and aimed a blow at me with the axe. I ran into the house by the back door, about a dozen yards from the washhouse, narrowly escaping the blow aimed at me, as he ran after me. I had no sooner got into the house than I heard a noise as if he were attacking some one outside. Coming out again, I at once saw that he had knocked down the washerwoman. She was lying outside. She told me she had struggled with the fellow, and tried to keep his axe back, but when she got hold of the axe he rushed away and caught up a small axe close by that is used for breaking lulnps of coal. He then struck her with' the small axe in a line with her nose, inflicting an ugly gash, and then struck her again, inflicting a frightful wound in her arm. When he saw me approaching he relinquished his attack, and prepared to meet me. I picked up a piece of wood five or six feet in length, weighing about thirty pounds. I aimed a blow at his head, and he aimed a blow at mine, which knocked the wood out of my hand. I picked it up quickly* just as he was aiming another blow with the axe. I struck at him from the ground, and as his blow descended the handle of the axe broke short off near the head. Seeing only (he handle left in his hand, I aimed another blow with the wood at his head. This time I hit him, and knocked him down. I struck him again, to make sure of him. He put up his hands to prevent it, and the blow cowed him. I did not. hit him with all my force. I was afraid I should kill him. I then shouted for a rope to bind his hands, and my wife came out with a revolver, at the sight of which he held up his hands, pleading for his life. He made signs, and said something in his own tongue. He pointed away to a. distance, and I understood him to mean that he was willing to go quietly. My wife then brought the rope, with which I tied his hands firm, and then got the assistance of Messrs Appleby, Ladgrove, and Fry. We did not know of the murder, and thinking he might be an escaped lunatic, Fry rode off for two wardersThey came and pinioned the man firmly, and took him to town.