AUCKLAND

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2357, 6 October 1880, Page 2

AUCKLAND

[FROM (IUU OWN COUKESI’ONUK NT.] TIIK KEC ent attociti ks. The scenes of cles])crate outrages committed in and near the city by a New Hebridian native on Monday nigl.it and Tuesday morning, have, perhaps, never been paralleled here. Besides that man\ r years have elapsed since murder under any circumstances has been perpetrated within the city or suburbs, the community has always enjoyed a singular immunity from such horrors. The effect of the news may then be imagined. Until the press extras were issued on Tuesday morning the generality of people were only aware that a most determined assault had been made upon three boys in a boarding house situated in Eokcliy street and that the miscreant had made good his escape. The extras, however, gave particulars of the discovery of the body ou the New North road witii the back of the skull chopped open. The South Sea islander was immediately connected by a chain of circmstantial evidence with the foul crime, and the police who had been searching for him all night, redoubled their exertions. The feeling in town rose to a pitch of excitement which culminated and then gradually subsided after it was known that the murderer had been captured while endeavoring to kill a defenceless and aged woman whom he encountered in the wash house of a gentleman named Melville residing at Mount Albert. It is unnecessary, I apprehend, for mo to enter into the details of the dread affrays, for they will doubtless ere this have reached you by telegraph. Before going on further, however, it may not be amiss just to advert to the dramatic grouping of the incidents contemporaneous with the murder. The place where it was committed is a lonely part of the unlighted road. The houses of the gentlemen who live there stand away back from the road in the midst of shrubbery, while a line of tall gum trees extends along that side of the thoroughfare on which the tragedy was enacted, throwing it into gloom even when the night is clear. It was darker than usual on Tuesday evening. The murdered man was sauntering along the road to meet his wife who had been into town, and the ferocious savage must have stolen quietly behind and without any- word of warning dealt him the death blow. At that precise moment a lady and her son wore turning off into a branch road about 100 yards distant, and they both heard two loud blows and two dreadful groans —a groan following each blow. They stopped, and the lad remarking that it was a funny time and

place to kill a calf, expressed a wish to go down and see what was np. However, they went on their way. In the meantime Mrs Rees had returned home along the railway line, and linding that her husband had gone in search of her she started after him. She must have passed the dead body and also the lurking savage, but seeing nothing she went back. Then feeling assured that the absent one could not be far away she sent her little daughter to meet him. The child proceeded along the road some distance, and then after turning back saw a small black man in front of her. He was clad in guernsey, blue serge trousers, and a Scotch cap, was barefooted ami carrie;! a large American axe over his shoulder. The poor little thing was greatly frightened, and so she dashed off home, passing the surprised murderer with the swiftness of a deer. She did not speak of the occurrence to her mother lest she should frighten her. According to the voluntary statement made by the prisoner at the inquest, he was stimulated to his sanguinary outbreak by the manner in which the lads of the household bantered him. lie has only been a month in the city and they practised upon his fears by telling him that the Maoris would come and cut his throat and burn his hands, ami that as he was such a little fellow lie could not help himself. A gentleman had also the kindness to tell him once when he was being scolded for neglecting some work, that the whites would take him and string him up to a beam. He says that he felt bad in consequence of these things, and brooded over them long before resolving to destroy the whites before they had time to work out their intentions upon him. The statement is plausible, and the more so as the murderer began by depriving himself of the only possible defence open to him—that he was insane. He commenced by stating that he was neither silly nor stupid. There can be no doubt that fears can be easily raised in the simple mind of an untutored savage, and that an implicit credence can bo obtained for the most improbable stories, so that it is doubtless true in this case that the fellow ruminated over what had been told him until roused to a pitch of bloodthirsty desperation. A.MUSKMKXTS. The Lingards finished their dramatic season on Saturday last and on Monday opened with “ H.M.S. Pinafore,” Mrs Lingard as Josephine, Mr Lingard as Sir Joseph, Mr Dawson as Ralph, Mr Campbell as Captain Corcoran, and Mr Craig as the Boatswain. The performance is hardly satisfactory. The choruses arc very indifferent, and there is much fault to find with the majority of the characters —from a musical standard of course neither Mr Lingard nor Mr Corcoran sing well enough, and they sutler greatly in being compar'd with Mr Riccardi and Mr Harding, who formed a local “Pinafore” company some time ago. The “business” is not encouraging, and therefore, the bill very probably will be soon withdrawn. Church bazaars arc engaging the attention and absorbing the spare cash of the pleasure loving. One was held last week, another is being held this week and a third is announced. iusi'OVKkv ok nor, i), rrc. A reported discovery of rich gold at Te Aroha in the Upper Thames district is exciting a. considerable amount of interest. The finders, however, maintain a discreet silence as to the precise locality and character of the hidden mineral treasure, but they are making endeavors to effect the purchase of the ground. Anew goldfield would be a godsend in these dull times. The glutted labor market would be at once relieved, idle capital would find profitable investment, and the revenues of the country would be increased. By-thc-way Carrard, the mob orator, has found work at the Xorth Shore, and the unemployed agitation has therefore ended as suddenly as it was begun.