MURDER OF A POLICEMAN.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 118, 5 September 1885, Page 3

MURDER OF A POLICEMAN.

Eably this morning, at about 240 a.m. (says'the Sydney " Evenir-g News " of the 13th inst. ), William Parkinson, a nightman, residing in Canterbury, while proceeding over the Cook's River Bridge, was horrified to find the dead body of Constable William Hird, the resident constable for the Canterbury and Belinore district. On examination, it was discovered that the unfortunate man's skull was fractured, as if done with an axe or some sharp instrument, the helmet having been cloven through. Parkinson immediately reported the matter to the police. Drs. Jones and Chisholm, of Ashfield, were called in and examined the body, and pronounced life to be extinct. Some short time afterwards a hat, boot, and coat were found near where the body had been discovered, and subsequently a blood-stained axe, such as is used by wood-splitters, was discovered a shore distance away. An important clue is in the possession of the police, and steps have been taken to arrest two men upon whom suspicion has fallen. These two men are supposed to be bushmen. The deceased. William Hird, was a native of Aberdeenshire, was 33 years of age, and has left a wife and five children (two boyr and three girls). The theory of the murder,, and upon which the police are working, is that the two men were probably proceeding across Cook's River bridge, carrying a tent and other articles, when the constable accosted them, and demanded an explanation of their possession of the articles and their destination; They probably were unable or unwilling to satisfy the constable, and he possibly endeavoured to elect their arrest, and in the struggle which ensued one or other made use of the axe with such terrible effects - At present there is nothing to show that the murder was premeditated, as the men are understood to have taken to flight, having, left the deadly weapon as evidence of, their , and >, to have remarked to their mates, r '* W/9 b.elieye we have killed a,, bobby." On© „ significant point, conneoted : ,with > the tragedy!? that the unfortunate" maji^ boots, weve v unlaced, as if he had been, called out' in , • ) , [A oable despatch pn 19bli:. inst, stated, that -two, men- (doubtleBet the Jyp (bushmen suspected) had been arrested on.isUspiciQn of having committed the murder.