WELLINGTON.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 93, 25 September 1863, Page 6 (Supplement)

WELLINGTON.

MURDER O F A SET TL E R A T RANGETIKEI. (From tbe Correspondent of the Tj aily Times-) Wellington, 7th Septem ber, 1863. The Storm Bird is now several days overdue from Auckland ; her non-arrival prevents my giving you th) important information I hoped wlien I last wrote, to bf • able to send you, by this opportunity — the JL 1 riuce Alfred to Lyttleton. Nothing has transpired here of a general character to interest you, so far as the movements of the natives aye concerned, either at Wairarapa or on the West Co; ist ; but we weie thrown into a state of grea t excitement oi\ vSaturda} 7 , by the news of a murder of a settler at Rangiiikei, named Eo berfc Rayner, under circumstances which lle t very little doubt, if any, that the fouler i me had been committed by tvvo natives. 1 iangitikei, it may be necessary to premise , is a large district on the West Coa*t, abo ut a hundred miles from Wellington, about 45 from Otaki, j and about 30 before you read i Wanganui. A private letter in Saturday's S oeclator gives the particulars of the disappe arance most ! succinctly. It was written at I iangitikei on 1 Wednesday evening last (2nd 5 -opt.) by one Of tlie magistrates engaged in tl ie investigation, probably hy Mr Fox. "1. Rayner was at Bull's pc rfectl y sober till 12 o'clock on last Thursday night (27th August.) Transacted business p rivately with Hub, receiving money in bank notes, which he forwarded by mail to Welling -.ton. "2. Started for home, three- quarters of a i mile, on steady horse, about mic luight. Fine i moonlight. | ,- 3. The cavalry troops drilled for six ! hours at Bull's on Friday, in si ght or almo-t in sight of his house. He ought to havo boen present, but was not. "4. Interval till Tuesday. On Tuesday morning Mr H Broughton rod. 3 to his place on business ; did not go inside t he fence, but cooeyed, and getting no answer came away. "5. Wednesday, Mr Broughton went again. Went up to the house ; found doer locked ; kitchen door ajar about four inches- . No signs of any human being about. Goi inside by window ; found ail inside doors locked ; key between kitchen and rest of house missing ; but that door locked. Two guns and a revolver all right , not recently ! discharged ; but revolver tak en out of its ' case, and lying on floor. Tb c bedding of I Rayner's bed, cmiously mixed "up on that bed i with the bedding of a bed in a djacent room, I on which half caste hoy of sixteen had slept on tbe Thursday night. Am -w coat which Rayner wore at Bull's, on Tnur sday/and pair of better boots, both missing. I ireeches found on bed supposed to be those- he wore at Bull's ; but he may have had two pairs alike. "G. Had two boys living with him to Friday morning, a Maori anil a half-caste. Both left on the Friday morn ing, and were at Bull's andßroughton's. the h caste being brother of Broughton's wife, 'Che half-caste was a regular servant, but vn s to leave on Monday ; the other, a temporal y one, says liis job was up. 'Die Maori says tl icy had breakfast together before ho left, Ii ayner and the two, and the breakfast thing s were found apparently just removed to tho dresser. The half -ca.ste is reported to have said that he left Rayner in bed, and had no* breakfast but a piece of bread and butter. This is inconsistent with the other story. The half-caste went on Friday to a pah abov< ■. my place on other side where his relative;.-* live. I liave sent Mr Broughton for him, and expect to find him at my house when I g *"*t back. The Maori boy was taken up to v. Ie house ; his tale is perfectly consistent, an d ho seems in no way alarmed or confused, fie says Rayner came home about 12 o'clock, liad something to eat, and went to bed. "We have searched every c: *eek and hole about, but no traces anywhere of anything. The waters were low on Fric lay, Saturday, and Sunday, but a big fresh in the Tutene and river on Monday and Tuesday, quite heavy enough to carry a body out to sea in twelve hours," On Thursday morning, (just, a week after j Rayner was last seen) the hoc y was found ! buried about ten yards from the House, j which is situated on a farm of several hundred acres, and some distance irom the public road. The toes of the boots were sticking j out of the ground. This lead to the discovery, | as the newly dug ground had been covered j over with rubbish. Two spades -used in digging the place of concealment were also found in an out house, having blood aud hair upon : tbem. Rayner was dressed iv the clothes he had on when at Bull's, and lu-d apparently been engaged in a struggle as. his coac was partly off one of the arms. There was a piece of flax round one the legs, by which the body had been dragged to th< ; -place. The discovery led to considerable excitement, and it was supposed when the mail left the same afternoon, that a general exodus of women and children would take phi«e, t nder the apprehension that it was the first of a series.

.Colonel Logan, who i* now in command of the Wanganui district, was fortunately .on the spot and was able to assure the ; settlers that all the aid he could render them wa.s_at their aervice. They expressed their desire for arms, in case tbe murder should be a prelude to a general attack, and ho less bitter must it have been to him to say, than for the settlers to hear, that it was impossible to arm them, there not being sufficient, for ordiuary purposes. Last night additional news arrived. The post mortem examination shows three bullet wounds, from Rayncr's own revolver. The half-caste lad has been given up byhisfriends, . and three natives were put on the jury of the inquest, which commenced sitting at Bell's on Friday. The natives of the neighborhood declare it was not the work of a native, or he would never have left two guns and a revolver behind, and that if it was the work of distant natives for revenge in connection with the war, they would have left th *•* body exposed, and not buried it out of sight. The magis- \ trates have received information of some suspicious circumstances which will lead to the apprehension of a white man living close by. It appears he was convicted two or three years ago of cattle stealing. Rayner and a son of Captain Daniells, living on an adjacent farm, being the principal witnesses. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment, but in reply to a memorial got up in the neighborhood, the Governor liberated him last year. It is said that he had been heard to threaten vengeance on Raynor and Daniells, *" even if he were hanged for it.'' Now while no time could offer such facilities as the present for throwing blame on to the natives, and thus afford some reason for much that appears inconsistent with the committal of the murder by a white man, yet there is so much that seems to implicate the half-caste and native servants, that suspicion of its being a white man's work requires to be raised with caution, and, because of this, I do not mention more on this score than I can possibly help. There is also a story carrent to the effect that Rayner, who has always employed natives in preference to white men, had a few week's since a quarrel with some natives about the payment for a contract, and that threats were then made i use of which induced Rayner to send his wife and children on a visit to their brother-in-law at Wellington. The expected panic has not taken pace, but yet several families have gone towards Wanganui ; but most likely it will seriously alarm families all over the province It is almost a miracle that we have escaped an universal p.-mic by this time. There was a military funeral to-day of a I young man named Frederick Bohvell, one of I the Defence Corps, from Otago. His body i was found last Friday floating in the harbor. The verdict was " Found Drowned." Saturday, 12th Sept., 1863The Storm Bird, from Auckland, arrived on Thursday morning, having beeu harbored at Manakau for live days, The trip assigned to this boat is a most unsatisfactory one for time-table keeping, having to call- at no less than three bar harbors or rivers — Wanganui, Raglan, and Manakau, and one roadstead — Taranaki. Raglan has been missed several times lately, the state of the weather, I presume, necessitating it; but as a consequence the Government bave stopped a month's pay. Tho news brought by the Storm Bird is only to lst September, on which day the soldiers did not go out shooting, although the English i instincts of '.heir officers naturally led them to hope that there would have beon something more than partridges at which to pop. The , Auckland arrived last night and will bring later date-*, but nothing very staitling. At the time I write the mail is not opened.