Revd. Mr Wallis on Winiata's Execution.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4243, 7 August 1882, Page 2

Revd. Mr Wallis on Winiata's Execution.

" I hare witnessed a great many executions, bufc I have never seen one so disgracefully carried out as the execution of Winiata. When Te Pata was executed for the murder of Morgan, the hanging was performed by that wretch Fletcher. Well, that was bad enough, but this was

very much worse. The rope was not at all placed in the right position, and tha man was therefore only s'rangled. He struggled five or six minutes after the bolt had been drawn, and breathed heavily. I was so disgusted that I walked a dozen yards away, returned, heard again the gurgling noise, walked away, came back to hear it once more, and then a third time traversed the distance before the sounds became inaudible. There is no doubt, as you say, that a few minute's would seem long under such circumstances, but after miking due allowance for all this, I think fire minutes must have elapsed from the drop of the man until he ceased struggling and gasping for breath. I do not-think the. neck was broken by the fall; indeed, Ido not see how it coald be. T>r^Philson had his doubts about that. The gurgling noise cf which I spoke is not always heard at executions. I never before heard it, except in that case of Pata's. In the case cf Nutene, who was executed for strangling a native girl, the fall was followed by instantaneous death, and not the slightest movement of the body was visible. True there was a kind of muscular motion fora few moments, but that' was all. In the case of the native who was hanged for the^-,^ murder of Thompson, it was just the san*c. Besides these, I have seen two other natives executed, and with them also there were none of the results attendant upon the hanging of Winiata. When the body fell I was standing upon the gallows, and, by looking straight down I' could see it struggling and the limbs writhing in-agony. The hangman then ran down and entered the enclosure, but the whole thing had been so horrible that I did noi care to look what he did. I have before; seen the lower part of the scaffold boarded in. I imagine that the executioneer must have thrown himself upon the body, for the rope, which had been vibrating in an agitated way, became steady after he entered. It was a barbarous affair altogether. When I saw the man adjusting the rope I noticed that he had it differently from what I had ever before seen. The rope too, was as thick as a small, cable. I do not wish to see such a horrible affair again. ..'..: