GOLDFIELDS TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 280, 19 April 1911, Page 6

GOLDFIELDS TRAGEDY.

MINERS RUSH TO BRITISH GUIANA. As a fair number of New Zealanders are engaged in gold dredging in British Guiana, the following news from Georgetown, the capital of the colony, will be interesting reading: The rush to (lie gold district, of Menamu, on the Yow.n-'an border, recently discovered, recalls thai which took place when the goldliehls at oilier parts of British Guiana were discovered a quarter of a century ago. Over 1000 men are said to have gone up. The reports to hand are of a disquieting nature. They show that lawlessness prevails. Most of the gold diggers have armed themselves with guns. Might is right at Manamu, and there is a good deal of elaim-junm-ing. The case of Mr. G. Dinklage is especially hard. He is the pioneer of the. district, and it was his report of a rich I find that started the rush; but his claims I have been raided and his instruments used. Dinklage has had to stand by and see the depredations committed. Owing to the difficulty of transport there is a shortage of provisions, and those projectors who bring provisions are being plundered unless they have a band around them large enough to protect their supplies. Owing to the scarcity of food the body of police sent up by* the Government returned; but a warden has been despatched with full powers to protect riglits and preserve order. Diamonds are also reported to have been discovered, and are of good quality. It is stated that part of the rich district which stretches into Venezuela was in British Guiana territory prior to the award by Italy in the boundary dispute some years ago. The Venezuelan Government have taken steps to safeguard their interests, but so far this colony has had no cause for complaint so far as the Venezuelans are concerned. For murder committed at another gold district named Arakaka, a black man named Theophilus Skeete, was executed at Georgetown prison on the 4th inst. The tragedy was one of the most remarlvable in the history of the colony. Angry at not getting what he considered a foilshare of the gold obtained by a party of four, and at being told his services were no longer required, Skeete shot one of the men. The others took to their heels but he started off in pursuit and a terrible race for life ensued. The frenzied gold-digger overtook one and then another of the panic-stricken men, and fired at them in spite of their appeals for mercy. He then made after the fourth man, who, however, found refuge in a church just as Skeete was close upon him. Two of the three gold-diners shot succumbed to their injuries. Skeete met his fate with great fortitude, statin" on the scaffold that he believed God had pardoned dim for his crime, and that he was prepared to die.