THE LATE AUCKLAND TRAGEDY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2367, 18 October 1880, Page 4

THE LATE AUCKLAND TRAGEDY.

[Abridged from tbe “ Now Zealand Herald,” Oct. 11.] Daring the past week ending Oct. 2, Auckland has been startled and horrified by a series of horrible outrages perpetrated bj r an Islander. One man has been murdered, a boy is so seriously injured that but little hopes are entertained of his recovery, while a woman is also seriously injured. We narrate the events in the order of their occurrence:— Mr Edward Thomas Woolcott, with his son, arrived from Fiji about four weeks ago, and they were accompanied by a Fijian native, who had been in the service of the family for about seven years. He was looked upon as faithful and peaceable, and up to the time of the diabolical occurrence which we have to relate his conduct has been exemplar}'. It appeats that between 8 and 9 o’clock on Monday night, Mr Woolcott’s son, with two friends—named Sankey—were in a room in Mr Sankeys, house playing a game at cards. The Fijian came into the room. Nothing peculiar was noticed in his manner, and conversation went on, when suddenly the Fijian whisked from his side an axe, with which he made a desperate stroke at Gibson Woolcott, a boy II years of age, inflicting a dangerous gash four inches in length, extending from his temple to the crown of his head in a diagonal direction. Not content with so much devilry, he struck fit one of the Sankey’s, but fortunately, in his fury he did not guide the weapon to deadly purpose. He struck one blow on the back of the neck, inflicting a bruise, and the second was on the face, apparently with the side of the weapon, but it caused a severe contusion and swelling. The screams of the lads alarmed the family, but the Fijian decamped, carrying the axe with him. One lad who attempted to stop him, he threatened with the axe, and a servant girl who came on the scene he threw' a brick at, fortunately without effect.

Next morning at the daw a of day Sergeant Clarke, who was on the Great North Road, was informed by a milkman, named Crawford, that a man was lying dead on the road with great gashes in his head. He went down with Constable O’Connel and found a settler named Henry Louis Rees. The body lay in a pool of blood. There was a fenrful gash, inflicted evidently by a tomahaw'k or an axe, which had penetrated first through the soft felt hat which the deceased wore, and then crashed through the back portion of the head to the brain. Death must have been instantaneous. Rees had been in town with his wife and he was returning evidently at a later hour by himself—probably about midnight, when he was encountered by the Fijian and struck down from behind. The murdered man leaves a wife and three daughters, the eldest of the latter being only 14 years of age. They are quite unprovided for, although the eldest girl is in service. The only motive for the murder appears to have been the devilish instinct which seized the man.

About 8 o’clock the same morning Mr Melville who occupies a two-story house at Mount Albert w r as told by bis wife that there was a blackman in the washhouse, and that he Had frightened Lizzie Braithwaitc, the servant girl into hysterics. Before this, the Fijian had been seen by Mrs Arnold, a washerwoman, who had been engaged. She saw him crouching in a corner of the wash-house. Mrs Arnold, who has been in Fiji, and recognised him at once as a native of the Islands, w'as not in anywise alarmed. Seeing an axe in his hand, she naturally supposed ho had been employed to chop fircw'ood. In answ'er to a question to that effect, he replied “ Yes.” He remained in the wash-house while Mrs Arnold was making her preliminary preparations for the day’s work. In the meantime Lizzie Brathwaite, opening the door of the washhouse, saw what appeared—no doubt from its venomous expression—to be the face of the fiend himself, and as a natural consequence, she screamed, and was absolutely frightened into hysterics. It was at this time that Mrs Melville called Mr Melville’s attention to the presence of the interloper. Mr Mcllville was partially dressed at the time, and speedily finishing a hasty toilet, he wont down to the yard. Tlie Fijian was still in the washhouse, crouched behind the end partition, next the door. Mr Melville looked in, and saw him. In reply to a question as to what he wanted, the Fijian made no reply, so Mr Melville reached in, and caught him by the back of the neck to put him out. Just in time, however, Mr Melville saw the desperado feeling the axe, which he had before observed so springing back he avoided the blow struck at him and ran for the back door of the house, pursued by the savage. He had not a moment to spare. The fiend was at the door almost before it could be closed. Had the blow come down it must have killed Mr Melville ; it was not the only narrow escape he had within the succeeding few minutes. The Fijian next turned on Mrs Arnold. He rushed at her with an uplifted axe, but she pluckily met his approach, and grasped the handle of the axe before it could descend on her. A struggle then ensued, the woman screaming all the time and the Fijian endeavoring to recover his weapon. He succeeded in reaching a small tomahawk, used for breaking coal, and with this he struck the poor woman a desperate blow ou the forehead, opening a wound between the temples just above the nose, and a second blow inflicted a horrible flesh wound on the right arm between the elbow and wrist, which reached to the bone. Mr Melville heard the screams, saw the woman on the ground and the Fijian above her. To rush to the rescue was the work of a moment. The Fijian seeing the man approach at once desisted from his attack and rushed on Mr Melville with the axe, which he had by this time recovered. Mrs Arnold ran bleeding and shrieking into the house. Then came the tug of war. Mr Melville is by no means a robust man, but he proved himself to be cool and brave. Hurriedly picking up a billet of of wood from the pile, he met the Fijian. His weapon half a teatree log, six inches in diameter, and curved, was scarcely a match for an American axe, hut he swung it, and met the descending blow of the axe which was intended for his head. Horrible to relate, the log was thrown out of his hand, and instant death was impending, but the shock of the blow rather staggered the Fijian, and for a moment he could not renew the attack. The moment was a precious one ; it enabled Mr Melville to seize the log again, and the first upward twirl of it again met the descending axe, this time not on the edge, but on the handle near, the head ;

and so great was the force of the blow that the handle broke, and the axe dropped, leaving the Fijian with no other weapon than the broken handle. The log of wood was more than a match for this, and Mr Melville speedily recognising the fact, with another swing of his unwieldy weapon struck his adversary such a blow that he was sent reeling and helpless against the side of the house. A second admistration of the same weapon caused the wretch to cry out. Mr Melville refrained from striking again. The Fijian was brought to town in the custody of four policemen. At the Police Station a mob had assembled all eager to catch a glimpse of the human tiger whose deeds of blood had so startled the city. The Fijian was manacled and his arms were fastened to the buggy. The prisoner who is of small stature (sft 2in) looked submissive rather than defiant. He was indeed like a wild beast who had been thoroughly cowed. He glared furtively about as if he had been in a cage, and rubbed his bleeding hands one upon the other. He once or twice attempted to put his hands up to his head, but evidently did so with some dtficulty and probably with pain, although he manifested no expression of that. Just after his capture, and while he was in the guard room, he looked dazed and confounded but during the day be became calmer and spoke freely and quite rationally about his crimes.