PAGES FROM THE PAST

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 83, 24 August 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

PAGES FROM THE PAST

(By Edwin Meade)

A REMINISCENCE. THE MAUNGATAPU MURDERS,

It was in the month of June 1800, I had just returned to the Nelson golddiggings, where I had a fair amount of luck and a good share of the hardships and rough experiences which the early pioneers had to endure, and was enjoying a rest in my maternal home when there occurred the brutal and cold-blood-ed murder of five men on the Maungatapu Mountain by a gang of ruffianly bushrangers who had carried on a series of atrocities on the coast and other places. The excitement and horror created in Nelson at the time will hardly ever be forgotten.

On the 17th June it was reported in Nelson that four men were missing. They had left Deep Creek, a small gold field township on the Wakamarina, for Nelson in order to take passages for the diggings on the West Coast. Their names were Felix Mathien, hotel-keeper, John Kempthorne, storekeeper, Jameg Dudley, storekeeper, and James De Poutius, all of Deep Creek. Kempthorne and Dudley were Englishmen, Mathien was a Frenchman, and De Poutius a French Canadian. The four men reached a place called Oanvastown -before noon on Tuesday, 12 th June, and left there on their way to Nelson the same afternoon. They had between them about four hundred ounces of gold, besides bank notes and had a pack horse to carry their swags. They stayed on Tuesday night at the Pelorus Accomodation House, between sis and seven miles from Canvas Town. Thence on the morning of Wednesday the 13th, they started to complete their journey to Nelson. Before leaving Deep Creek, Matliieu had arranged with a man named Moller that he should follow the party on foot and take back the pack horse from Nelson. Moller, who was a good walker and carried no swag, started off from Deep Creek early on Wednesday morning and from what he heard apeared to be likely to overtake the party, which travelled slowly, having to accommodate their pace to that of the heavily laden pack horse. On passing Canvas Town Moller was told that his friends were only a short distance ahead of him, and he heard the same thing from time to time from travellers whom he met. The four men were LAST SEEN ALIVE on Franklin's Flat, a small plateau, about half-way up the Maungatapu Mountain and about 18 miles from Nelson. They were seen by a man named Birrell, and shortly afterwards by a man and woman who were travelling towards Wakamarina. Moller went on for some distance until he met a settler named Bowen, who was on horseback. He reported he had not seen anything of the men or their liorse. and from the nature of the country, which was very precipitous on both sides of which the narrow bridle track, and off which it was impossible to travel, he must have seen ; them if they had gone on. Moller was greatly bewildered, and went on to Nelson, but found no trace of the party, I who had not arrived in Nelson nor had been seen in the town. He returned to Canvastown, arriving there on Saturday. lGth June, and told his story to a Mr Jervis, a storekeeper there, who expressed an opinion that there had been FOUL PLAY, that the missing men had been murdered by four suspicious looking men whom he had allowed to stay for three days in an empty building adjoining his store in Canvas Town. One of t'lie men had been recognised by a Mrs Morgan, the wife of a gold digger, a.s a man she had known at the Dunstnn gold field in Otago where he was known by the name of Phil Levy. Mr Jervis, after hearing Moller's story on the Saturday night, rode into Nelson on the . searching the road by the way for the traces of the pack horse, but without result. He reported the disappearance of the men. and his suspicions that they had been murdered, and that he knew the murderers, but the story seemed so improbable that lie wa.s hardly believed. However. on the Monday following police were sent out to search for the missing party, and two gold diggers named Davis and Le Hardy, from Deep C'reelv went on to Nelson to look after the persons whom Jervis suspected.

A MURDERER RECOGNISED. On the evening of their arrival Phil Levy was recognised by them in the bar of the Wakatu Hotel. He was at onee arrested and a sum of over £O3 was found on him. He refused to say where he was living, and denied having any companions. Jervis recognised him, and so did Birrell. who had met him and his mates on the track between Canvas 'town anil the Maungatapu Mountain. Levy was brought up before the Resident Magistrate on the 18th, and it was deposed that lie had been seen at Deep Creek. He admitted this, but denied that lie had done anything wrong and protested against his detention. The .Magistrate, however, remanded him for a week. The same day the'police found that Levy had mates in the town, and that lie and one of them slept at an oyster .shop, and by the evening

THREE ADDITIONAL ARRESTS had been made, their names being Richand Burgess. Thomas Kelly and .Joseph Thomas Sullivan. When they were arrested enrh was in the possession of about £OO or £7O. The movements of the four accused for some time back were traced. On the Cth June they reached Nelson from Greymouth, where they were known as bad characters and had been watched by the police, though they were not suspected of being mixed up in murders which had taken place. They took their passage to the Buller River, now called Westport, Levy travelling in the saloon, the others in the steerage, but on reaching the Buller they paid t'he extra fares on to Nelson. On'the 7th June the four left Nelson and crossed the Maungatapu Mountain. They were dressed like gold diggers and were afterwards recognised by several people who saw them on the road. They arrived at Canvas Town on Saturday, flth June and here they put up as has' been said, .in a house belonging to Mr Jervis. That same night Levy went to Deep Creek, 'and while there learned the intentions of Mathieu and his party to leave there for Nelson, and at the same time found out that they would carry gold with them. Whilst staying at Canvas" Town one of the suspected men told Mr Jervis that they were "hard up," otherwise they would have spent a few pounds with him. While there their proceedings were

SECRET AND SUSPICIOUS and they would not allow anyone to enter the house which they occupied. It afterwards appeared that the reason was that they were 'employed cleaning their revolvers and guns. On the Tuesday morning they departed at an early hour, and it was by the merest accident Mr .Jervis saw them leave just at the break of day. As they passed to the river in the direction of Nelson he hailed them, and one of them replied with an oath that they were leaving the place as nothing could be done in it. A traveller, Mr Holloway, of Picton, who left Nelson on Tuesday 12th June, arrived at the Pelorus Bridge Accommodation House that afternoon, having met the gang. Be did not like their appearance, and on meeting Mathieu and his- party later on,,told them that four suspicious looking men were going to camp on or near the track that night, and to he cautious and watchful, but the men did not take the warning and.went on their way.

COXCEUN IN NELSON. The iioii-cirriviil of the missing men in Nelson caused .some excitement and in <1 few clays after a public mooting was tailed and a committee was appointed to organise and dispatch a search party and several others with myself volunteered as searches. The late Mr Hcnui Matenga (James Martin) and other Maoris from Wakapuwkaka, to whom a special messenger had been sent the previous night with a request that they would aid in the search, joined our pai t_\, and on the morning of Thursday, 21st June, we proceeded to Franklin's Flat, about 18 miles from Nelson, and made a camp adjoining a camp of a few gold diggers and a couple of mounted police troopers, who had been there some days before us. We elected Mr Charles Saxton, ail experienced New Zealand bushmen, to act as leader and captain of our party. The task we had undertaken of searching in such a rough country was an exceedingly difficult one. The track over the Maungatapu is now familiar to many and the spot where the murders were committed has often been visited by many persons. Even those who have not seen the place but know anything of New Zealand bush tracks are aware of the difficulty of searching a wild mountain range of country covered with forest and thick undergroivth. the only opening being the narrow bridle track on which people in those days travelled between Nelson, Wakamarino, thePelorus and Queen Charlotte Sounds. After fixing our camp we promptly commenced

| THE WORK OF SEARCHING, and on the first day, shortly after midday, Henui Matenga, the Maori, discovered the dead body of the pack horse, which belonged to Mathieu, lying covered with branches about fifty feet below the track down, the mountain side. It had been shot through the head. The swags of the men were still attached to the body of the horse. A loaded gun, two shovels and other articles were found close by. A brother of the raiis&ing man Kempthorne had arrived in Nelson from Dunedin, and he offered a reward of £2OO for the recovery of his brother's body. The Provincial' Government of Nelson also offered a reward of £4OO for the recovery of the bodies of the missing men, and the General Government of New Zealand issued a proclamation offering a reward of £2OO for such information as should lead to the conviction of the murderers and a free pardon to any accomplice not an actual murderer who should give such information. After finding the dead body of the horse, we continued our search, systematically going over the ground on the ■lower side of the track for five or six miles on the Nelson side of Franklin's Flat, but we were impeded very much for many days by heavy rains and rough cold weather. We were about to commence a search of the upper part of the mountain when news camie to the camp that Sullivan, one of the suspected men. had made

A CONFESSION. He admitted he was an accomplice to the crime, but denied that he actually committed murder. The confession was made on Friday, the 29th June, and from that time there was little doubt of the fate of the accused. Sullivan stated that it was he who shot the horse and that he was road keeper in the gang, .that be preceded the others, and while his companions were engaged disposing of their victims, he stood ready to give them warning or shoot any travellers who were likely to tell tales. The victims were '''stuck up" at a large rock which has since been known as the "Murderers' Rock," and, according to Sullivan's statement, the horse was taken behind the rock and the doomed men were marched up the steep bed of' a stream close by. They were induced to go on by promises that they would be let away but when they were gone far enough away from the track, about four or five hundred yards, they were murdered.

DISCOVERY OF THE BODIES. Dudlcv. when we found him, bore signs of being strangled, Kempthorne was evidently shot dead. De Pontius, it was plain, had been hit by two or three bullets whirli did not kill him outright but his life had been forced out of him by pieens of rock being thown on to his prostrate body. Felix Mathieu must have had a struggle for life with his murderers, for his body when we found it was lying across the broken roots of a fallen tree bound with straps, a bullet bole in his breast and a knife thrust to his heart.

AN OLD MAN'S FATE. Sullivan, in liis confession, made a statement that the day before the four men were murdered lie and his party stopped an old man named James Battle, took him oil the track into the bush, and after robbing him of £3 a.nd a few shillings which was all the money he possessed, murdered him. Burgess, in his confession before execution, however, declared that Sullivan alone strangled the old man. Sullivan also in further additional confessions, stated that at one time and another the gang had disposed of many persons, and that he had heard Burgess and Kelly tell of so many murders they had committed that he could not recollect the details of them all. The gang had been concerned in a robbery of ; £2500 from the Bank of New Zealand ; at Okarita. Sullivan also stated tlvere had been a plan, if they had not been discovered in the last murders, to rob the Bank of New South Wales in Nelson. Some of the gang were to have 'entered the bank just at the hour of closing on mail day as if on urgent business, and. after murdering all the.staff of the bank, they intended putting the body of one of ' the victims beneath the flooring so as to lead suspicion to fall on the missing ; one, and after securing tlve gold and money leave at once by steamer. RECOVERY OF THE BODIES. It was on Friday, the 29th June we found the bodies of the murdered men lying in the underwood on the steep mountain side about a chain apart. The four bodies were secured to .roughly prepared stretchers made bv poles cut in the bush, and were carried by relays of the search party over a rough track to within six miles of Nelson, and from thence the bodies were conveyed in a bullock dray the remainder of the journey into town. About a dozen of us remained behind at the camp on Franklin's Flat in order to search for the body of the old man James Battle. The bodies of the four men on arrival in Nelson were laid out in a small building near the Government Buildings and were viewed by some thousands of people. An inquest was held and a verdict was returned that the four men were wilfully murdered. On the following Sunday the funeral took place, and there was an enormous gathering >of the people. The bodies were buried in the new cemetery at the spot which is now marked by a monument. On the 3rd July those of us who remained at the camp went out and found the body of the old man, James Battle, at a spot indicated by Sullivan, between two and three miles from the scene of tlve other murders. The bodv ■was carried by us into Nelson, and after an inquest was buried beside those of the other murdered men. The searchers did not accept the reward offered by Mr Kempthorne for discovery of his brother's body, but the money offered by the Government was divided amongst us, and we at once subscribed towards the erection of a suitable monument to be placed over the graves of the murdered men. The organised search party were out about a fortnight and the ex- ! ptnditufe rf the committee, including

the reward given by the (Jovornimai was over €llOO.

SULLIVAN GIVES QUEEN'S EVIDENCE. The prisoners were remanded by the Resident Magistrate from time to time until 2nd August, when Sullivan was put into the witness box to give Queen's evidence. He told his story and the other three were committed for trial before the Supreme Court. The whole four were then charged with the murder of James Battle and remanded. Before the case came on again Burgess made a confession, and in it he did his best to clear Levy and Kelly and to throw all the blame on to Sullivan and himself. On the 12th September the Supreme Court sat in Nelson, the late Mr Justice Johnstone being presiding judge. Burgess, Kelly and Levy were tried before a special jury for the murder of Felix Mathieu and his three companions. Levy was the only one of the accused defended by counsel. The trial lasted six days, and Sullivan in his evidence stuck closely to the story originally told in his confession. The cross-examination to which he was subjected did not shake him in the least. Burgess and Kelly addresed the jury on their own behalf. The former, who was a bold ruffian, repeated his confession and maintained that he and Sullivan were alone guilty. Only one result could follow the evidence, and

A VERDICT OF GUILTY was brought against all three. Burgess received the sentence of death with firmness; Kelly displayed the utmost terror, and Levy protested his innocence ibefore God and man. The offer of the Government of a free ■ pardon to an accomplice giving Queen's evidence in the case of Felix Mathieu and party did not extend to that of James Battle, so on September 19 Sullivan was tried and found guilty of the murder of the latter and was sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out. Miscreant as he was, his evidence had been of the utmost value, and it was thought judicious tc- spare his life. After some time he was released, but wherever he went he was a marked man. He was recognised in the other colonies to which he went and was hunted about. He could find no resting place where he was known. From time to time news reached New Zealand that Sullivan had again been recognised somewhere. What became of him eventually is not known for a certainty.

THE DEBT PAID. Burgess, Kelly and Levy were lianged in private on Friday, October 5, 1866, the only persons admitted to the gaol yard being the ministers of religion in attendance on tlie prisoners, the necessary Government officials, and the representatives of the Press. Burgess met his fate with great boldness and made a speech to those present. Kelly, as at the trial, displayed great fear, and Levy protested his innocence to the last.