MURDER OF CAPTAIN KING.

Colonist, 2 March 1861, Page 1 (Supplement)

MURDER OF CAPTAIN KING.

(From the Taranaki News, Feb. \i.)

The day after our last issue was marked by a catastrophe which will cause it to be long remembered, with sorrow in the province. In the afternoon it was reported in town that Captain W. C. King, of the Militia, had been waylaid and shot by a party of the enemy on his estate, Woodleigh, little more than a mile from the barracks on Marsland Hill from which it is overlooked. The greatest excitement prevailed, and the Militia call having been sounded by direction of Colonel Sillery, a considerable number of Militia and Volunteers, followed by a detachment of the Military, soon reached the spot—in fact many moved forward with such celerity on the first alarm that Mr. George Hoby, of the mounted escort, was in time to scare off with his revolver the two natives who had just come up with Captain King and shot him as he lay wounded on the ground, and prevented them rifling the body. This is the second of the leading men of the province that this war has deprived us of, and no one could have been picked out more widely respected, with larger interests, or with more family ties. Just entering upon a public career for which his position rendered him every way eligible, and in which his abilities were calculated to shine; respectable and respected in every relation, it is not too much to say that a life of great usefulness has been cut short, and that his loss will be long felt. The deceased was Captain of Militia, a member of the House of Representatives, and of the Provincial Council.

The natives who laid in wait for and assassinated Capt. W. King are now well known to be Ngatiruanuis. It appears from information brought into town by a native who was at Poutok on Sunday last (and consequently had to come through the taua, on his way to the institution), that the rebels were aware of Captain King's going backwards and forwards to his farm by the hoof traoka of his horoc, -and a- party-• of about 30 laid in wait for him—they were in ambush two days for the particular purpose. From what the rebels state, he was in the act of shutting the gate after him oh entering his grounds, when he received a volley. Both himself and horse were wounded ; notwithstanding which the horse jumped either the gate or fence' when he fell and threw his rider, Captain King now ran for it, but, after some little space, fell on going down a slope, no doubt from exhaustion, when two of the rebels (men who had formerly worked for him) who had ran after him came up, and notwithstanding his appeal to them to spare his life as he was wounded, he was deliberately shot through the head, and struck with the muzzle of a double barrel gun across the forehead with such violence that the gun barrel was bent. The names of these miscreants are said to be Hori Kiwi, and Hohepa Kohirangatira. All the marauding parties in the neighbourhood of the town have their head quarters at Waireka, from whence they go out in parties to plunder, murder, and burn. The most active in these proceedings is the Ngatiruauui, men who have received greater kindness from the settlers of this place than almost any others. Formerly they were constantly employed by the farmers here in cutting bush, harvesting, &c.; and now, without even the shadow of a cause, they come up aud turn out perfect fiends.