MURDER BY A MADMAN, In Canterbury.

Patea Mail, 14 June 1882, Page 2

MURDER BY A MADMAN, In Canterbury.

(PER UKITEI) PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Christchurch. —A ghastly crime is reported from the timber district of Oxford, some thirty miles north-east of Christchurch. On' Monday morning, the gang of platelayers of the Oxford branch railway had commenced work, and whilst two men, named Packnetz and Horne, were placing a sleeper on the trolly, another of the gang, named John Greenland, who was standing behind with an adze, suddenly lifted the adze and said to John Horne, “ You b-—■ I will do for you,” and struck .■him with the adze behind the ear, the blade running across the neck and half severing the head from the body. The foreman of the gang, Packnetz, said, “ John, what are you doing, man ?” whereupon Greenfield rushed upon the ganger, and said, “ You b 1 will do for you too.” Packnetz ran away, and the murderer followed him a considerable distance, when Packnetz turned and seized him, and in doing so received a blow on the side of the head, but fortunately only with the handle of the adze. Packnetz seized the adze and wrenched it from him. The murderer then ran across the field on the opposite side of the main road, and was afterwards found by Sergeant Scott lying down in a furrow where there was only a small quantity of water. He was stretched at full length in the furrow, with his face in the water, and was quite dead. Horne has lived a long time in Oxford, and during the greater part of the time has been employed on the railway. He had a wife and family of seven children. He has been a steady and careful man, and has acquired some property. Greenfield leaves a wife and four children.